the mercenary
by Swilson41
Summary: In this story hiccup is a mercenary with a troubled past. Berk is under seige and has dispapched one of there best warriors to recruit this mercenary and his team of dragon riders but will hiccups past stop him from helping those in need.
1. Chapter 1

The Mercenary

The Road to Redemption

Children are around 16 years old

"I remember the day like it was yesterday, the day in which my friend died" the children looked around curiously." it's not something I like to remember but I feel like it's important for you all to know the day berk was attacked, the day we lost our chief and our heir...the day I lost my friend, it's important for you all to know because I just received word let the man who did it is dead. his name is Drago Bludvist. he came to a council of the chiefs claiming that he had the answers to our Dragon problem but he had demanded our submission and loyalty. we refused to give him any, we were too proud,... that was when he burned the building in! only my friend stoick survived. he thought he was spared but it was too late, Drago had come back the next day to finish the job. he came with a large army, they came and pillaged and burned, many people died. I saw my friend fight drago himself. as I rushed to my friend's side an ax had been thrust into his ribs I saw him go into his house and I only knew one thing. his son was in danger I had to save his son! I charged with all my might but I was not able to defeat him. as I was knocked down to the ground I was knocked unconscious. the last I saw of him was when he walked out holding the young Hiccup part of me never really forgave myself that day."

As gobber looked around at all of the children looking at him. each one of them enthralled in the story that he was telling them a tear soon moves down his eyes.

"No one knows what happened to the baby some say he took it with him to kill it to make sure that he didn't take revenge for the death of his father others say he took it to be sacrificed to the gods whatever he did there's no way that babies alive."

"Is this the reason why Spitelout is in charge?" asked one of the children

"yes," said gobber "no heir to the throne for stoick so it would pass on to his brother"

"Well that's enough story for tonight kids I don't want to talk about it too much while getting too emotional but let's just enjoy the campfire," he said a tear rolling down his face

Ever since Hiccup was a baby he was abuse at the hands of his adopted father Drago Bludvist. the words you are worthless, I should have killed you, where said forever.

for the longest time Hiccup did not know why Drago had adopted him. He knew he came from somewhere else but he didn't know where. it was only until he was able to pick up a small sword when Drago finally revealed to him that the reason he adopted him was that he was 'of good stock' and that one day he would become the greatest soldier in his army.

Hiccup felt like property he felt like a slave and in all aspects he was. if he weren't training every second of every day or going on missions that his adopted father assigned he was following his adopted father cleaning up his messes and being his personal maid/assistant and at the end of each day, he would sleep in a tiny little corner underneath Drago's room aboard his ship that was barely large enough for Hiccup who wasn't even a large person.

Drago had been capturing Dragons and forcing them into slavery along with Hiccup for a long time and when Hiccup was finally ready he forced him to kill a Dragon it was one of the most traumatic experiences he ever had.

A small sick week old gronckle but still, it was nonetheless traumatic he swore that day he would train as hard as he could to free himself from those bonds. one day his adopted father told him that he would be in the ring against his most fearsome opponent.

The opponent that would earn him a proper Viking title. his adopted father had captured a night fury this night fury was kept in a cage and was only allowed to see sunlight when it was fed for only a few seconds Hiccup felt awful about this but he knew that trying to escape now was useless.

He had made friends on the ship people who he liked and who he respected and in turn, they respected him. The kid became a strong fighter in such harsh conditions.

a young hunter named Eret who was a Dragon capture and a slave girl named Heather. he had really bonded with Heather and by the time they were 16 they become very close friends. he told her that one day he was going to escape from slavery and that he would help rescue her. when Hiccup and Heather were planning their escape eret had discovered but instead of turning them in he had decided to help them, Hiccup needed a big enough distraction to cover their escape and what big enough distraction than to release his adopted father's most prized capture, the Night fury!

so when the time was right he snuck in and unleashed as many Dragons as he could and when he did this none of the Dragons came out at first. they all thought that they were about to be whipped so he had to go in and show them that they were free. he first started with the Night Fury

he walked in "hey Dragon you are really big"

the Dragon looked at him with anger in its eyes

"I just open the door and you're free now" the Dragon looked at the door wide-open Hiccup standing between it and the door Hiccup knew that the Dragon would not go between it and the door so he started to walk by back towards the door

"come on Im helping you escape"

the Dragon seems to understand him to a degree and slowly and hesitantly started to walk towards him. he was finally outside of the cage and there was visible sunlight and he could see the Dragon's face instead of just its eyes

" you're really beautiful you know"

he then pulled out fish that he had ready for him.

" here you go"

the Dragon looked at him and then opened its mouth almost expecting Hiccup to put the fish in its mouth as he opened its mouth with no teeth.

"toothless I could have sworn you had teeth" as he finished his sentence teeth immediately shoot out from his gums and he immediately bit the fish from the hand he then gave him two more pieces of fish

As hiccup looked into the dragon's eyes he realized something. " everything we know about you guys is wrong" he said to the magnificent creature.

Im going to do something stupid hiccup thought to himself. He reached out his hand tempting to touch the night fury. In almost no time at all the night fury started to growl at him.

Hiccup looked away extending his hand and letting the night fury decide to come to him.

It took a few moments but soon the night fury rested his head in the palm of hiccups hand.

The nigh fury soon pulled away and looked at hiccup

"I'm going to go release the other Dragons you go on now" the Dragon looked at him curiously. the person who just fed him and had given him fish was now telling him to go? a most peculiar human but he was not about to argue. He started to fly away and as Hiccup started to rescue more Dragons they soon came out and he soon was able to rescue them.

one Dragon seems to be in pretty rough shape it was all metal and looked as though it had been abused really badly the Dragon was so broken Hiccup had to use his hand to help it out and once he gave it fish and use his hand to touch his forehead as he did with the night fury the Dragon believed him and once he showed him the open gate he let the Dragons fly away. he did this with several more Dragons until finally, an alarm rang out his plan had worked someone had noticed that the night fury was gone and he rushed out to see that they were all rushing towards their catapult stations he knew that once a night fury was on the loose they weren't going to capture him again so he decided now was his chance to escape he ran towards where Heather was hiding and he had her follow him to where they would meet Eret who had a small boat ready to take them to a distant island.

Hiccup asked Eret to come with them and Eret agreed but as they were about to leave guards soon spotted them. Hiccup grabbed his sword and Eret grabbed his sword and the guards came at them.

both Eret and Hiccup were at this point expert sword fighters and had sparred together before and were able to fend off the guards who had come at them but they had sounded the alarm that Hiccup was trying to escape.

while Hiccup was trying to fight off the rest of the guards who seem to endlessly come, Eret made a split-second decision. he pushed Hiccup into the boat and cut the rope that was holding it. as they sailed away Hiccup saw his friend, the one who just risked his own life and the one who would surely perish, fight the guard in a hopeless last stand. now Eret looked at them as they sailed away.

Drago Bludvist soon entered the background and he could see Eret grabbed his sword and swing at Drago who then blocked with his sword and then swung down. Eret was able to block but then Drago punched him hard in the jaw knocking him out. the guards soon grabbed him and took him in pass the docks and into the boat

as Heather and Hiccup rested on the island that they made their way to Hiccup told Heather "I'm going back"

"you can't you'll die," heather said grabbing his shoulders

Hiccup knew that he would die but he owed a debt to his friend the one who had helped him escape he cannot just leave him there to be tortured by his father which would most surely happen.

Drago was an expert when it came to making someone suffer, Hiccup knew firsthand the cruelness of his adopted father.

Heather said that she would go with him and Hiccup knowing that he could not get Heather to stay on the island waited till it was dark and she was asleep took the boat and left he did not feel right lying to his friend but Heather was a slave girl she could not fight, she didn't even know how to hold a sword. only two people have to get killed tonight.

if Hiccup had to die and if Eret had to die then at least someone would be saved.

as he made his way to the ships before he got to the docks jumped into the water. he swam underneath the water and made his way to the boat and climbed up the side of the ship.

the ship was massive, one truly fit to destroy fleets. as he crawled up the side of the ship he saw guards standing watch and he could hear screams, his friend, he needed to get there quickly he got up he saw a guard walking away. he went over as silently as he could and dispatch the guard. Once he was done he made his way over to the area in which he knew Eret would be he knew he needed another distraction but he had already let out the night fury.

" no more Dragons" he saw the place where Eret was being held was below deck in a cell.

he was currently being dunked underwater and then held up as Drago was repeatedly punching him asking him "where did they go".

Eret responded in a sarcastic remark "you're going to have to be more specific sir a let a lot of people go"

Hiccup knew that the only way to get Drago away from there is if he made a big enough commotion so he went over to the ropes that were keeping the ship in port. he took out his sword and immediately started to cut he eventually was able to cut all of them without anyone noticing and as they started to drift Drago soon noticed as well " how come we are moving I ordered us to stay in port!"

as he ran up Hiccup had hidden and once they were all up they were trying to bring the ship back into port. Hiccup ran down below deck only two guards were station near there.

Hiccup had relentlessly trained for years by his adopted father since his adopted father was under the impression that Hiccup was stoick the vast son and that he was "of good stock" but in reality, Hiccup was a runt. Hiccup was a good fighter and had mastered a lot of weapons, two guards were not hard but he'd seen what they had done to Eret and it filled him full of rage. he ran at them and they pulled out their weapons one guard attempted to slash at him but he soon used his smaller-size to dodge and as the guard try to recover he took out his smaller sword and immediately stab the man in the jugular vein the other guy use his ax to slice at his head but Hiccup was able to dodge and the man got his ax stuck in the side of the boat Hiccup was able to thrust his sword into the side of the man going straight in and then he pulled it out once the man had fallen to the ground Hiccup grab the keys off of one of the men and unlock the cell to Eret and immediately helped his friend. he got him out and above deck but was greeted immediately by Drago. he pulled out his sword and attempted to make a stand.

"do you think that you can defeat me boy, not even your own real father could defeat me"

Hiccup knew he was adopted and he knew that Drago had killed his own real father but he only knew small parts of the story.

" what does that have to do with anything!"

"Your father was a great Viking you will never live up to his greatness, you don't even look like him. when I saw you in a crib after I killed your father I thought I would take you and raise you and make you a champion but seeing you here I'm surprised your own father did not leave you in the forest to be eaten by the wolves"

at hearing this Hiccup was fueled with rage he soon went to attack his adopted father, some men went to stop him but Drago told them to stop

" no-no if the boy thinks he can defeat great Drago Bludvist he should be given the chance"

Hiccup was breathing heavily after hearing these words. they were hard to hear and he was infuriated.

the men went to make room on the ship as Hiccup and Drago pulled out their weapons Hiccup sword was smaller but lighter Drago sword was massive and heavy.

they started to duel every time Drago went to swing his massive sword at Hiccup he was able to dodge using his smaller size to go underneath the massive swings using his smaller blade to slice at the larger parts of Drago.

every time Drago was able to get a hit against Hiccup it felt like it was going to be the end until he realized that if hey failed then they would kill his friend and hunt down Heather he gathered his courage and went in.

as Hiccup was dodging his attacks and slicing at Drago's larger points Drago kicked Hiccup and forced him to drop his sword he had him right where he wanted him. as Drago stood above Hiccup, sword raised about to stab the boy in an instant Drago felt the feeling of metal go through his sternum.

he looked down to a sword not too unfamiliar like his own men. he then turned around to see Eret who had rushed over to save his friend as Drago suddenly stumbled to the side he tried to pull the sword out from behind but it was no use he could not reach with only one arm as he slowly fell to one knee he reached out a hand holding it towards Hiccup. Hiccup looked at his adopted father thinking about all the pain that he had put them in end-all of the horrible things that he had done. Hiccup then grabbed his tiny sword as Drago was still on his knee Hiccup thrust it through his heart and pulled it out.

he watched as his adopted father fell to the side he soon had no life in him as soon as this happened every single solitary guard in Dragos army had surrounded him Hiccup and Eret grabbed the sword that was in Drago. him and Hiccup we're back to back with each other.

"well it looks like it's just you and me kid," eret said to lighten the grave situation

"it was a valiant effort" he replied knowing eret was just as scared as him

"how come you came back for me?" eret asked

"because no one ever stood up for me the way you did and if I'm going to go down I'd rather go down fighting with a great friend like you"

"I'll see you in Valhalla friend," Eret said with one tear rolling down his face as the guards slowly started to move in a large whistling sound was heard one person eventually said it... "night fury!" as Hiccup and Eret both looked up as soon as they did they both couldn't believe what they were seeing the boat that they were on was getting smaller and being put in the distance he then realized where they were. the night fury that he had saved had come back for him!

he looked up to see the night fury it looked down at him and smiled and an awkward weird way.

as it took him back to the island where he had left Heather hiccup looked at Eret " did you know all that stuff about my father and where I'm from, I mean my real father"

Eret looked at him and made eye contact

"I had heard some of it, I'm sorry I didn't tell you Drago would have definitely killed me and that's not even a joke" they both laughed at this.

as they reached Heather the night fury who save them it slowly kept a safe distance to them.

as Hiccup and Eret walked over to Heather who was waiting for them concerningly she then went over and hug both of them

" I'm so glad both of you are okay" as she said this she then went and slapped Hiccup "you left me"

"I know I'm sorry," Hiccup said to her

and then she went to Eret and slapped him

"you left him"

" I know I'm sorry."

Heather then looked to Eret and then back to her friend Hiccup and asked "what do we do now" Hiccup look to Eret and Eret said in his trademark accent "well that's entirely up to you lot. you are free men and women"

"I owe you my life you save me from my life of slavery." hiccup said sincerely

Eret looked at him

"I but then you saved me from dying I think that makes us even"

"don't I owe you since you saved me, Hiccup," heather asked

" well, then Heather I guess we all should just stick together with me and Eret's training and with Heather keeping us sane I'm sure we can figure out a decent living," said Hiccup

as soon as he said this a large tongue from behind him licked the back of his head it was a night fury who he had saved. as he turned around he saw the night fury wagging his tail

" and then there's you. what are you still doing here? you're free to go as well"

" I think he likes you," Eret said

"you're welcome to stay we are free men now"

" and women!" said Heather

"well if you're going to roll with us you're going to need a name...how about toothless"

Hiccup then look to Eret

"you said I was from a different place I want to find that place not to stir anything up but to just see it maybe someone from my family's alive if I could just meet them maybe get some closure that would be nice"

Eret looked at Hiccup "it would be my honor to accompany you on your journey to reunite you with your long lost family and land but I must warn you don't get your hopes up too high you don't know what will be expecting"

And that includes chapter one my idea for Hiccup the mercenary with his mercenary gang the first chapter is mainly just how he becomes a mercenary and where he learns to fight and how he meets toothless but the next chapter is more current if you will

This is a story not just about slavery and freedom but overcoming demons and regret. Redemption and learning to love your self again. A lot of this is based on my life when I fleed my country. I had to learn that it was not my fault to want to survive. This story is also about dealing with suicide and other touchy subjects so that they have meaning in my life.

In my country of Guatemala, there was a civil war and my family fought on the side of the indigene's rebels. We lost the war and I had to flee. My tribe was wiped out, My family and my home all gone. This story means a lot to me and I hope I can convey what I went through in my life to show you some real-life feelings on the war. Not just for life but for your land and for family...and what it's like to lose, as well as when I was able to find some members of my tribe that had survived the war.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hiccup, Eret, and Heather found themselves as the best of friends, Eret acting as the older brother to Hiccup when times got tough but Hiccup acting as the leader of their group.

3 years into there journey going around traveling to islands meeting new people they found windshear and Heather and windshear made a bond immediately.

Hiccup realized that it was the same dragon from Dragos ship he had released. A bit after that they met Bonecrusher and soon they were all riding dragons.

At first, they just wanted to help people and explore there new found freedom and in return, if the people could give them some food and water and maybe some money for there services then it would be accepted but not required. Eventually, people were coming in search of the mysteries mercenary dragon riders from all around and Hiccup and his friends decided that their time of travel was over. But they weren't done riding dragons!

They reasoned that if some people thought they where already mercenaries which they were already very good at they could spread the word that dragons and humans could co-exist.

The island they settled down on was small and had a trading port which was perfect for them. they soon moved to the town and called the island there home and earned a fearsome reputation as some of the most effective mercenaries around. People on the island were terrified of the man who rode upon a night fury and his entourage of dragon riders but soon learned that he was only there to work, eat, sleep and take care of his dragon.

The island that they were on soon went from a small port to a large trading hub of trade comers and mercenaries looking for work. The island was soon full but the best part was that none of them minded toothless or the other dragons his friend's road, they would mostly just leave them alone. Granted they were more scared of what the mercenaries would do to them then the Dragons. Hiccup, Eret and Heather spent their gold that they earn making a large house big enough for 3 dragons and 3 people. When they decided they were getting into the mercenary business they wanted a name that reflected who they were.

The Dragon guild syndicate.

_5 years after Drago died_

"Get up!" Yelled Astrid as she picked up a young warrior on the ground "shield wall!" as more raiders crashed into them Astrid looked on as men, women, and steel clashed.

"Snotlout make sure our flank is secure!"

"Ma'am there coming back for another attack." Yelled another warrior.

"We'll stop them here. we can't let them get to berk!." Yelled Astrid

Suddenly a large man rushed throw and broke threw the line, throwing men down in his path. Astrid saw this and yelled "every one advance!"

She soon charged at the man and he drew his sword, he swung but she blocks with her ax. She then countered by hitting the man in the groin and the man stumbled.

she then swung her ax but before she could two men came at her she blocked one but the other was able to tackle her on the ground she soon tried to reach for her knife as the man tried to choke her but before she could the man who attacked her had a sword in his side. She saw her friend ruff. she stood their, sword in her foe blood on her face as she pulled the sword from the man's body. She then went to help her up but before she was up everything went dark

"Astrid"

"Astrid"

"Astrid!"

Astrid awoke she saw Fishlegs standing over her

"Astrid you're awake oh thank thor"

Astrid sat up. Fishlegs put his hands on her back helping her"What happened?" asked her

"During the battle with the raiders, you were hit in the back of the head." Answered Fishlegs

"Did we win"

"The got to the gold storages but we stopped them before they got too much"

"How long was I out?"

"A few days"

"Dammit. How many people did we lose?"

"We lost some good people, some houses got burned down and we're running out of gold and food is running low. We can't withstand more attacks like that for much longer"

"Agreed"

"There is good news, if we can last another 3 months then the harvest will be ready."

"If we last that long". She said

Berk had been in a state turmoil since Drago had died. Many of the people in Drago's army suddenly had no job. Many of them went on to raiding tribes and other lands. Berk in the last year had been raided 12 times. Something had to be done.

"Astrid im final glad your feeling better," said Spitelout

"Im glad im feeling better chief." She replied

"Astrid, there is something I need you to do," Spitelout said

Spitelout was a good chief, he cared and wanted to protect the people but he was tired and from everything that was happening he had every reason to be tired.

"We're losing this fight and if they come back they may overrun us. im not sure if we can do this alone. I decided to uses the funds that we have left and hire mercenaries to help."

"Chief you can't be serious we barely have any gold as it is. what makes you think that it will be enough to buy a good enough mercenary to save us?"

"I don't but we have to try, its all we can do. The only reason I suggest it is because I heard of specialized mercenaries, they ride on dragons if we enlist there help they may save us."

People on dragons... Astrid had heard of these strange warriors but never met them apparent there leader was a man atop a night fury with old ties to Drago Bludvist.

"Chief the idea is not a bad one but even if we did find them do we really want to hire people directly associated with Drago Bludvist?! The man who killed your brother."

"If it where up to me I would hang every man who killed my brother and my nephew but if they can help us then I could give a damn if they worked with him!"

Astrid went stiff she realized that he was doing his best and that he was right and that if there where people out there who could save them then they should disregard their association with Drago

"Your right what can I do?" she asked.

"Your a great warrior and very reliable I can think of no better person to send to hire them," he said looking at her

Astrid looked shooked. She thought that he would choose his son

She asks him " why me, why not Snotlout"

Spitelout replied, " my son is not the best at following throw with his missions, you, however, are fearless and brave and loyal I know I can trust you."

"How can I refuse."

"Great, you leave tomorrow. Take two other people with you and half of the gold in the treasure and when you find the mercenary tells him that you have a job and that you're willing to pay a high price. Tell them what is happening and what you need and that if they help they will get the rest of the gold once the job is done."

"And what if we don't have enough?" Astrid asked

"Then you tell him we can offer other things."

"Can we offer other things?"

"We will think of something to give them"

"I won't let you down chief." Said Astrid

The next day Astrid was ready to go in search of these great warriors. She had decided to bring Fishlegs and Ruffnut. They learn that there was an island where all the mercenaries hung out. If they where to find these dragon riders then they would most likely be there.

"Uh, can someone please explain that to me one more time," ruff said.

"Fishlegs please tell ruff that we are traveling to this island to find Dragonriders to help us fight off these raiders," Astrid said annoyingly

"And what's to stop the raiders from robbing us while we're at sea," asked ruff.

"the luck of Odin" the luck of Oden

4 days later

"let's get wasted!"

Hiccup yelled, while simultaneously buying drinks for an entire bar usually, Heather would step in at this point and stop him. but today was a special occasion, it's his birthday and the birthday boy gets to go all out. of course when he goes all out and this has happened before it usually ends in Hiccup going into a bar getting extremely drunk starting a bar fight getting kicked outside beaten up by 15 men putting up a good fight and able to beat back the 15 men before finally passing out in a boar pit. Eret, of course, would make sure that his younger friend would not get into too much trouble or danger while intoxicated who at that amount was completely acceptable for this smaller human.

he would also celebrate with toothless during this day. after this would happen he would go to toothless and fly around town and then fall asleep somewhere under a tree, this is not an isolated incident as he was notorious for doing this after his birthday.

When Astrid got off the boat she tied it down and pay the harbormaster to watch the ship as she left Ruffnut and Fishlegs to keep watch over it as well. she then made her way into town to find the person she was looking for.

when she got into town and she had seen things that she had never seen before, trinkets that had been from places that are never been spoken in her language. she finally overheard some large men talking about how they were going to go celebrate with the other guys down at the great bar. she thought that she would start there.

As she made her way to the bar she saw shady people all around her. she thought they were looking at her though they didn't really give her a second thought which was kind of reassuring. she had left the gold with her friends and finally made her way to what looks like it said great bar. once inside she heard a man yell "let's get wasted!"

just a common drunkard she thought

She soon found herself a table and someone came over and asked her what she was drinking "just some mead"

she soon got her drink and the girl who gave it to her said it was on the house.

as she slowly sipped on it she looked around seeing if she could spot a large fearsome warrior. one who had seen many conquests and had been in many great battles.

this was a bar full of mercenaries, he would have been kind of hard to spot, She thought. Astrid watched as she saw other people enjoying their drinks talking about jobs that they did and jobs that they were thinking about doing some were standard protection others were things that she couldn't think of such as murder. She didn't like to think that she was in such a place, eventually, she saw the person who was drinking mead as though it was water in a small cup spill some on a group of large men. they all stood up angrily and he looked at them

"Hello there fellows"

as he slowly stumbled backward he bumped into a man who turned around to see him and five more men stood up to see him. he had knocked over a tray of drinks on to them as well.

Astrid didn't need to be an expert to know what was about to happen. she was interested though she might step in to try to save his life. at least if they were going to kill him she didn't like death though she had taken a life. she did feel sorry for this man as they drag them outside a dark-haired woman in a taler muscular man slowly followed.

Astrid did as well. The men through the smaller person on the ground and create a circle around him one person moved into attack and as she was about to intervene when suddenly the person's punch was countered by the smaller person who used the momentum to bring the other person down on the floor he then uses his foot to hit the man in the jaw and knocking him out.

he stumbles a little but catches his balance and looks around. the rest of the men go to attack him and so young fighter pulls out a knife one of the opponents tries to throw a punch at him but is blocked and is sliced in the stomach while at the same time two from behind try to tackle him from behind and is stop when the younger opponent turns around and uses his foot but to hit one of them and the other person he takes his knife and puts it in the arm of the other he tries to pull it out but it gets stuck eventually the other man grabs him and throws him on the ground and start kicking him and punching them Astrid is about to intervene when suddenly the dark-haired girl who'd followed him output her hand in front of her and tells her.

"This is what happens, I tell him every time"

then the tall muscular man said "we have a running bet to see how long it will take before this happens didn't even take 40 minutes"

the men soon stopped as Heather pulled out a double ax that Astrid never saw before. she then walked over to the mercenaries and told them "I'll give you each one gold if you pick him up and follow me"

they all looked at her but surprisingly did as they were told they followed her and follow them to a large boar pit. once they were there the dark-haired girl said " please toss him in there"

the mercenaries did as they were told the dark-haired girl pulled out a large sack of coin and started to pay each man one golden coin. the dark-haired girl looked down at the man in the boar pit and then looked over to Astrid

" don't feel bad for him he knew this was going to happen"

Astrid had no response. she just looked at her and the dark-haired girl said to her "where my manners hi I'm Heather"

Astrid looked at her and said "I'm...ah...Astrid nice to meet you"

"Astrid this is Eret son of Eret come on let me buy you a drink," said the dark-haired girl.

As they made their way back to the bar Astrid asked her "Why did you stop me from helping him?"

Heather replied "he does this every birthday or every celebration. that man spends some of his money and literally almost like sun work he gets drunk knocks over drinks people get mad, they take him outside he puts up a good fight but eventually loses because he's drunk he then gets beat up really badly and gets thrown into a boar pit I tried to tell him not to do it but today he told me not to and I am not allowed to stop him"

"Why are you not allowed to stop him today," she asked?

"Number 1 because it's his birthday and number 2 he's my boss"

"that small tiny person is your boss," Astrid said in astonishment

"he's not that small and yes he is my boss well leader boss is kind of a touchy subject for us but yes leader"

Astrid then asked "and what is it that you do"

"we're mercenaries, you know muscle for hire, you got a problem we'll fix it,"

"really you two don't seem like mercenaries and he definitely does not seem like a mercenary"

" well I didn't start out as mercenaries but we kind of slowly became that way" she explained

"you mind sharing how"

"Sure Eret be a dear and get us some drinks please and thankyou. me and that guy who is currently face planted in a boar pit well...we were slaves"

Astrid heard this, she didn't really know of slavery she had not witnessed it or been around it. never the less she had heard stories of slaves and they all were sad there for it wasn't really something that she supported

" one day my friend, the one in the boar pit decided that he wasn't going to be a slave anymore and escaped and took me with him. one of the guards wear we were being held found out about our escape plan and instead of telling our masters he decided to help us "

"What happened to that guard," Astrid asked?

" you just met him. Eret son of Eret was that guard and he's helped me and that boar pit smothered man ever since, and so we escaped it was very risky though we had to kill our master"

" if your boss is such a good fighter then how come he lost," Astrid asked?

"I mean he did just chug like 15 meads and face 15 guys and defeat four of them I would say that's not a complete defeat," said the other girl

Astrid had to agree with her, that was a lot of alcohol for such a small person soon eret came back and had three drinks and he sat down as well.

"Astrid, where are you from," the buff man asked?

" I'm from a small village call berk"

as soon as she said this he looked up and so did Heather and Astrid noticed this

" have you heard of it?"

"yes that I have, "eret said to her

Eret soon asked "how come you made it to a place like this it's very long ways away"

Astrid looked at him "I'm here to hire mercenaries my village has been attacked by raiders and I need to hire strong warriors to protect us. we won't make it very much longer"

Heather looked up

"We are for hire"

Astrid smiled "thanks but I'm looking for a particular type of mercenary"

"What kind of mercenary would that be"

"I'm looking for the mercenaries who called themselves the dragon guild syndicate"

Heather looked up and then Eret and then said to her "oh you're looking for the Dragonriders huh, whos leader tamed a night fury and is a master tactician and has seen hundreds of battles"

"your looking for the man with a flaming sword and has a personal relationship with lightning and death its self" eret said immediately after

Astrid's eyes opened up "you've heard of them? where can I find them I need to speak with them immediately I wish to hire their services I can offer them much gold"

Heather then looked at Eret with a smile on her face " Sorry but their boss is out of commission right now"

Astrid looked Heather "what do you mean how do you know that?"

Heather then said to her with a big smile on her face "he's the one in the boar pit" unable to contain their laughter heather and eret both let out a belly of waves of laughter

Astrid's eyes widened with horror as she quickly got up from the table and rushed out of the bar running towards the boar pit she could hear Heather and Eret laughing in the background as she made her way to the boar pit she saw that no one was in there. 

she looked around frantically " no no no no! I had him you were right here and I had you and I let you get attacked."

After being beaten up and thrown into a poor pit Hiccup had only one thought in his mind. who was that girl who watched him get beat? as soon as he woke up in a boar pit he felt in his pockets then realized he left the gold with Heather. then he thought to himself, dammit I'm in a boar pit I owe Heather I lost the bet. as he slowly got up he realized how many bruises he had on him though they were nothing compared to what he had been subjected to before.

he realizes that one of his ribs was broken. a cold reminder he thought to himself. he slowly got up and made his way to the exit of the boar pit and climbed out and walk over to a dark alleyway in the mid square.

he somehow found his way home, he usually does. he went into his room and found toothless sleeping on his fire pit. he thought to himself, right where I left you. he notices something interesting earlier as he was getting pummeled by 15 men 11 men if you exclude the people he was able to dispatch.

he saw someone standing with his friends Eret and Heather a blonde-haired girl around the same size as Heather as he was getting beat it looked as though she was going to intervene although Heather stopped her, I would have done it too. He made himself laugh at this and made himself a small bath and he had toothless heat it up for him. he took off his prosthetic and set it to the side and he got in.

while he was taking his bath he couldn't help but think why would that girl want to intervene no one around here does that. you don't do that and as he was getting out he dried himself off and went to lay down. He thought she seemed interesting


	3. Chapter 3

The mercenary Chapter 3

After Astrid had gone looking for the leader of the group of the syndicate she then went back to the bar to look for the people that she had met. when she got there they had vanished.

"No no dammit fuck where are they! goddamit I had them, I fucking talked to them and they offered to help and I refused them, fuck!." When Astrid went to the boat she told her friends what had happened and they were in shock.

"Astrid calm down"

"I can't calm down Fishlegs!" yelled Astrid as she looked at her friends "I had him and I let him go, I failed!"

Ruffnut looked up "Um Astrid we still have gold im sure we can find another mercenary on the island. "

"Your right...all is not lost im sure there is someone here who can help us."

Eret looked at Heather as they were walking away from the bar "we could help her, I mean she may have gold"

"meh, she refused our help, she only wants us for our dragons."

Eret raised an eyebrow." what got you so cynical? Your the one who is usually with Hiccup trying to tell me its good to do charity work. And plus don't they all only want us for our dragons?"

"I know but It just seems that if they only want us for our dragons and not for our skills as expert fighters"

Eret stoped and grabbed Heather's shoulders with his hands. " didn't we agree that doing this was the best way to get the word out that dragons and humans don't have to kill each other and plus, they are dragon killers this could be our chance to educate them "

She looked at him but realized that he was right. Eret had always been like a big brother to her. when she was a slave on Drago's ship Eret always stepped in when she would get tormented by the crew members, when the crew members would get a little too drunk and try to attack her he would always put them back inline and when Hiccup and her where caught planing there escape one night, he had helped her rather than turn them in. "You know he might not like the fact the job is in berk," she said looking up at him.

Eret looked at her and seemed to sigh " I talked to him about berk and we flew over berk once and I asked him if he wanted to go down and see for himself but he just said no. I think he's just too nervous to go back so we just flew over and... Well... don't tell him I told you this but when we landed at a peak somewhere and after he just started to cry. I told him he can go when he is ready. Do you know what he said?"

Heather looked at Eret with concerned eyes, Hiccup never told her about this. " no what?"

"He killed my family. Drago, he killed them all. I hugged him as tightly as I could while he sobbed in my shoulder and said to him not all of your family. And when he looked at me I said again to him, not all of your family. Heather and I aren't going anywhere"

Heather looked at Eret and hugged him " we have all been throw so much but he's been through some of the most, I can't even think of some of the stuff Drago did to him without wanting to just hug him. Hiccup puts on that tuff guy act around other people but you and I know that funny little kid in there who will spend hours in the air just to spend time with the dragons"

Eret pulled away " come on we at least owe it to him to tell him about it and then he can make up his own mind"

After Hiccup woke up he and toothless went out for a ride and when they landed at a small cliff top Hiccup and toothless fell asleep under a tree.

When they woke up Hiccup was having a nightmare. This was normal, Hiccup had a lot of memories that he could not forget. Memories of when Drago would beat him but also when he would force Hiccup to do horrible things. When he woke up screaming, Toothless started licking his face.

"Thanks, bud"

Toothless looked at him licking him all over in a second,

"Oh come on you know that doesn't wash out"

Toothless stood up and got into a playful (come and get me) stance

"Do you know what you need? BELLY RUBS!"

As Hiccup and toothless started running around Heather and Eret came and floe down riding windshear and Bonecrusher.

"Hiccup you're finally up," Heather said While getting off of wind shear

Hiccup looked up with a smirk on his face "ah yes nothing that a tree nap in the forest couldn't fix"

" Eret and I may have found a job," she said while walking over to Hiccup

Hiccup looked at her intrigued "Really what is it protection, training, destruction, defense, bounty?

Heather and Eret came closer and they walked towards the edge of the cliff "defense maybe some training, but that's not the problem"

"Uh care to explain," he said in a sarcastic voice.

"The jobs from berk," said Eret

Hiccup went from looking down to looking straight up, he soon spoke "What did you say"

" nothing she just wanted to hired us and our dragons to defend berk from raiders," Heather said quickly

"I don't know berk is kind of a touchy subject for me, im not sure I can just go back" Hiccup exclaimed

Heather made Hiccup turn to her "but this way you're doing it for a job, just think about it"

"I will, common toothless let's go for a ride"

Toothless came and Hiccup put on his mask and flew toward the town

"What do you mean this is not enough, im telling you that there is more at my village!" Astrid yelled while staring at a man.

The man looked at Astrid "Sorry but if you want me and my men's help that sack needs to get a lot bigger.

Fishlegs pulled Astrid aside " come on we can find other people"

Before they left Astrid turned to the man she had to tried to hire. "Do you know where I can find the dragon guild syndicate?"

The men looked at each other than at Astrid.

"You can't afford them" Astrid was immediately told to leave.

When they were outside Astride turned to Fishlegs "let's face it I failed, no skilled mercenary is going to help us"

Fishlegs looked at Astrid with determination "we haven't failed yet, there is still time"

Astrid was frustrated but was glad to have a good friend like Fishlegs with her in these difficult times. As they were walking they saw Ruffnut walking towards them.

Astrid soon asked, "Ruff did you find anyone who we could hire or who knows where the syndicate is."

"You know it's weird it's like they're all afraid. When I walked in to bar I asked some guys if they knew the dragon guild syndicate and they looked at me as though they'd seen a ghost."

Fishlegs soon interjected, " that's weird if their leader got his ass kicked then why do they fear them?"

Astrid paused and then spoke, "I saw the fight he had with 15 guys I have been going over it in my head and I have to admit he was not bad for being drunk out of his mind and with only a knife ."

"Can't imagine him sobber," ruff said jokingly.

They started walking and talking to more people having the same result.

The finally stopped to take a break from looking and started toward an alleyway when Fishlegs notice two men were following them. "Uh Astrid, don't look behind but I think where being followed."

Astrid eyes widen suddenly "Fishlegs, RUFF RUN!"

Fishlegs and ruffnut ran behind Astrid as they ran threw the streets while other people ran after them, they made a turn trying to getaway. They turned down an alleyway hoping to lose them. She could see the end of the alleyway when they saw men coming out of the other end

Astrid stopped dead in her tracks " shit we're boxed in. ruff, fish protect my back."

The men who where fallowing them showed up behind them with 4 more guys. 4 in front 4 behind, Fishlegs pulled out a hammer while Astrid and Ruffnut pulled out axes.

The men started to walk toward them they had them boxed in when one of the men spoke: "I thought I recognized you."

Astrid realized the man was talking to her "you're going to recognize me real soon if you come any closer" she said angrily.

The men laughed "your that girl from that island we raided awhile back, ya I remember you, we fought once. Well, consider this payback bitch!"

Astrid was soon charged by the men and she swung her ax the first man went to stab but she parried and hit him in his back with her ax, the next man used his hammer to knock her over but ruff slashed the man's arm before he could finish her. She then looked over to Fishlegs who had two people on the ground as he was hitting them with his hammer when suddenly she saw a man behind him about to stab him. She grabbed her ax and charged the man before he could hurt her friend and she tackled the man to the ground. Like a berserker with a bloodthirst, she used the butt of her ax to bludgeon the man's face. she turned around to see Ruff get thrown to the side and then hit the floor. her body unconscious.

Her and Fishlegs watched in horror as their friend was not moving as 2 raiders stepped over her. they Both let out an angry scream and charged at the remaining raiders, Astrid and Fishlegs hit the men as hard as they could but one of the raiders matched Fishlegs attacks and another countered and struck at his side. Fishlegs grabbed his side as he hugged the side of the wall and then passed out. Astrid's eyes widened as she saw her friend go limp after grabbing his side. She could only think the worst. She then saw 6 more raiders appear behind her. She clutched her ax saying a small prayer.

"Odin give me strength"

she turned to her attackers as she saw one of them bring ruffs limp body to where she was, holding her by the hair. Astrid's eyes filled with rage.

"I WILL KILL YOU FOR THAT!" the men rushed her. As one ax came down she dodged and then she countered swinging hers into the side of the man's face, another person behind her swung a sword but she duct under while three more men with shields tried to ram her. She killed another when he tried to stab her and she deflected it into another person. As she was using her ax to block attacks and then counter she didn't realize a man behind her. He got up and grabbed a broken shield to hit her over the head. As she fell to the ground things where blurry and everything sounded muffled but she could see the raiders dragging her friends and laying them near her as if they where dead bodies. She could hear them speak a few words but things sounded muffled. she realized they were robbing them. She tried to regain conciseness but she could only see blurred outlines of the people.

Suddenly she could hear a high whistling noise, she could not make it out but the people around her suddenly dropped what they took and grabbed their weapons. She saw an explosion and a boom. then a dark blur in the corner of her eye was walking to the men who had attacked her. She didn't see what the person was wearing but she could see that the person was holding in his right arm a flaming object. When he made their way to them she could only hear them say "Dragos champion". they charged at him but she could only see the flaming object move fast cutting throw the men quickly and deadly. Eventual there was one man left standing and he ran away, she could see that the man was running in her direction but in an instant, the fire object being thrust threw the center of the man. The last thing she saw before she passed out was the fire object disappearing and the thing that killed those men slowly walk towards her and she could only see the resemblance of a hand reaching for her.

Hiccup was flying over the town he then started talking to toothless could talk back.

" I don't know bud what should I do"

toothless made a slight grunting noise

" I don't want to leave people who need our help you know that but this is berk were talking about, I mean I'm just not sure I'm ready"

toothless shook his head " yeah I know if I don't intervene now then there may not be a berk, to begin with, but that's where my father died, the only thing Drago told me about him was that he was a great warrior from that village what am I supposed to do with that"

toothless made a turn to the right and Hiccup said out loud

" maybe if I go back I'll be able to find more information about who my father really was"

toothless made another grunting noise "maybe my mom is there maybe she's still alive. no, I doubt it the way Drago talked he seemed pretty sure of himself that he killed them all."

Suddenly Hiccup heard a yell. he toled toothless to double-time it. when they reach the sound of the scream. he could hear raiders that he recognized from a bandit group surrounding a girl who was holding an ax she was covered in some blood and two people were next to her.

Hiccup leaned into toothless is ear

" that doesn't seem like a fair fight 8 on 1 what do you say we get in there and even the odds"

toothless made a grunting noise and immediately they started to go up higher into the sky and grab altitude as they were doing this he saw the girl get knocked to the ground he then yelled to toothless

"Come on bud we got to go"

They then went for a straight nose dive and aimed to the side where most of the men were huddled up Hiccup yelled to toothless to throw a plasma blast at them and toothless complied sending one right in the center of their location sending some of the men flying. He then jumped off of toothless and made a turn to avoid hitting the ground. he put on his mask and proceeded to hit the ground.

"... good evening, gentlemen, I'm sorry but these people are friends of mine and I cannot let you hurt them. also, you cannot have their stuff so if you could just give that back to me then great"

All the men looked at him. most of them we're still in shock eventually one of the attackers spoke "You're him...you're Dragos champion"

Hiccup looked up and then started to slowly walk over in a casual way "listen, you don't need to die, just walk away"

One of the men spoke quickly "we not afraid of Dragos champion"

Hiccup was still walking and was near the girl who was there laying on the ground he could see her eyes were still kind of open when he then made a startling discovery.

it was the girl from the bar. the one who had to try to help him but Heather told her not to

" Listen, guys, I'm feeling generous today how about you guys go give me back the money that you stole and I'll let you leave in one piece or I can have my night fury stand down and you can deal with me personally"

None of the attackers said anything but one man immediately went to stab at Hiccup, he pulled out his sword and ignited it. he had built his flaming sword himself, he was very proud of it and it had become a part of him, it was hot and it was terrifying to the enemy. He dodged the enemy's attack slicing off his arm quickly running at the other attackers. one of the men hid behind a shield moving in with an ax Hiccup quickly jumped next to the wall and then use the wall to get above the attacker jumping on the shield pushing the man down.

using the momentum from jumping on the shield he then went and stabbed the man behind him. He then saw the rest of the attackers start to move towards him. he put out his sword and grabbed three knives from behind his back that he had and threw them at the attackers two of the attackers were killed the last one went into a shield that one of the attackers were holding.

two more swordsmen came at him he parried one of them stabbing him in the head and the other one he was able to block and then slice through his leg his sword he had sharpened to a razor's edge chopping through legs was no hard feet. the man with the shield in front of him charged at him with a smaller ax and Hiccup took out a knife from underneath his wrist and threw it at the man's ankle tripping him he then stepped on the man's skull and struck through the center of the back with his sword he turned around to see the man who he had used to gain all this momentum trying to run away. he couldn't let this happen, if he had escaped word would get out.

he quickly used as much speed as he could use but he realized he probably couldn't catch him so he threw his flaming sword and to Hiccup surprise it went in the dead center through the man's sternum as he fell to the ground Hiccup removed it and then unlit it.

he then looked over to the girl who was laying down. she was really badly hurt. her head was bleeding and he reached down to pick her up he then made a whistling noise. Toothless came down from the air and he loaded the girl with blonde hair on to Toothless back, then he loaded the other larger man into toothless claws very gently. the man had received a slash to his stomach it wasn't too deep and Hiccup didn't think that it was life-threatening he had received wounds similar to this before and he was a lot skinnier, a wound like this on him would be much more serious but this person was very large and had a lot more skin to cut through. he then loaded the third person on the toothless's back and he then said to toothless

" We got to get these people home so Heather can help stitch them up"

As they made their way to their home he looked at the sack of gold that he found on the floor when he was lifting the girls up onto toothless. It wasn't very much he had received much larger pays for jobs that required less work. as he reached his home he yelled to Heather to help him bring the wounded people inside. Heather rushed out and immediately and dragged the larger person inside Eret came rushing out as soon as he understood what was happening and grabbed one of the girls. they brought them inside and laid them down and Heather grabbed her medicine and other supplies and immediately started to patch them up. Hiccup and Eret backed away letting her work.

One of Heather's responsibilities on Drago's ship was taking care of Hiccup when he came back each day from training with cuts and bruises or when Drago had sent him on missions and he would come back had learned from the elders before she became a slave on Drago's ship and due to all the experience she had treating Hiccups very numerous wounds she knew what she was doing.


	4. Chapter4

_Chapter 4_

2 days later

Astrid awoke, raising her head. her skull was pounding and her vision was blurry.

she could still see not too far ahead of her but she looked around and saw that she was in a strange room. she saw that her ax was standing upright next to her and she quickly grabbed ahold of it out of pure instinct.

suddenly a dark-haired girl walked into the room. She didn't recognize her at first but soon she realized that it was the same dark-haired woman that she had met at the bar.

the dark-haired girl hadn't noticed that she had awoken and was moving around in the room making and mixing different herbs eventually Astrid spoke.

"What are you doing?" she said in a low concerned voice

Though Heather did not jump she was startled

"I'm making medicine your injuries were not as bad as one of your friends"

it took a few seconds for Astrid to process what she just heard then she spoke in an instant

"Oh Thor what happened to my friend's, where are they, are they okay please tell me they're okay"

Heather turned to her

"yes they are fine I have been treating them for two days they will make it. the larger man received a slice to his side but it was not deep enough for it to hit anything important and the girl was hit in the head by hammer luckily it appears that she had previous experience hitting and being hit on the head and so no head wounds were sustained that could not be reversed, you, on the other hand, your head wounds were a little more serious I found splinters in your head, they had to be removed carefully all of you had cuts on you, some of you needed stitches but for the most part, you'll be fine."

Astrid was confused but at the same time, she was relieved she was so glad to hear that her friends weren't dead. she had feared the worst, after a few seconds her curiosity forced her to ask a question." how come you saved us"

Heather soon replied not making eye contact " I didn't"

Astrid was confused by this if not Heather than who? "then who saved us?"

Heather then turned to her making eye contact while leaning on a post that supported part of the room. " I didn't save you my boss did"

Astrid was stunned to hear this. of all the people she would have expected to have not saved her Heather's boss would have been at the top of the list. after all, she had let him get beaten up by men so why would he save her.

" Why did he save us?"

Heather then walk closer to her and started to undo some of the bandages around Astrid's arm. " believe it or not there are good people in this world and some of us believe in trying to help others."

Astrid sat and pondered what she just heard. she then remembered one of the men had referred to the person who saved her as Dragos champion. How could this be? Heather told her that her leader was a former slave, not some great champion, of course, he could become great but still why would she lie, was she trying to hide his past from her. Was he a horrible person and being a slave made other people have sympathy for him. Whatever the reason she had only one goal. Enlist his help. Even if he is a horrible person which after what people have called him, seems to be the case.

Astrid then said to Heather in an urgent voice " please I need to speak with him it's very urgent"

Heather turned to her after walking away " yeah he's around here somewhere I'll see if I can find him and send him in here."

As Heather reached the door Astrid spoke in a suspicious voice

"You told me he was a slave. Slaves don't have titles like Dragos champion. Who is he...really?"

Heather left the room not saying a word after pausing

[flashback, some time ago]

_[Heather point of view]_

_["you all know the mission, extract the hostage, take out anyone in the way." said Heather._

_["you move in from the front and make an assault on the compound while I go and infiltrate from behind," said Hiccup_

_[Eret looked at him while they were on the ground "got it you go and get the hostage out while I and Heather and the dragons make a distraction."_

The present

A few moments later she heard a knock on the door and she said out loud that it was unlocked and in walked a man. His armor reflected the candle that was beaming off him and he was wairing a mask. His armor was unlike that of which Astrid had never seen before it was like he had scales of a dragon. The man walked over to where she was and sat down. Astrid had not noticed it before but as the man stepped the sound of a (clank). upon closer inspection, Astrid realized he had a prosthetic leg. she was brought back to focus when He took off his mask and underneath she was shocked to find a man. just a man, not some crazed psychopath but a man his eyes where green and he had brown hear. But the way he spoke he sounded normal person like a normal man.

"You wanted to speak to me," Hiccup said quietly.

"Yes i...we need your help," she said looking down

Hiccup was looking at her, interested in what she had to say.

"Who is (we)?"

"The people of berk. We have been raided 12 times this year and our supplies are running low. My tribe has sent me and my friends to come and purchase your help."

'Hmm... I saw the amount of gold you have and I have to say it was not a lot.'

"We have more! Lots more...double that!" she exclaimed

"Even with that it still wouldn't be enough to hire all of us."

Hiccup got up and started to walk away when Astrid said in a hurry

"We have other stuff...we...we would be in your debt, please just go to our island and meet with our chief."

Hiccup reached the door and put his hand on the handle " you and your friends may stay hear until you are ready to travel. Now I got to go clean up that mess you made. As for where im concerned you still owe me."

Astrid was enraged after everything that had happened she finally got to him and he was walking away.

" what should I have expected from Dragos champion or should I say... Dragos whore!"

The words left her mouth before she realized that they were too much but she couldn't back down now.

"Drago attacked my village. He killed a lot of my people your no better then he was. Thor, I can believe my chief ever thought hiring you would work. Dragos men know only one thing and that's death and murder your no better then he is. I saw the way you killed those men in that alleyway that training is only taught to people who want to kill, people who are monsters!"

Flashback

_"Two more down the hall, easy" Hiccup ran down the hall of the complex and dispatched two more men. He began searching the rooms and looking for someone who looked like a hostage._

_When he opened the last door he found five men and a girl behind them the men had a sword but he was more focused on one of the men who had a large greatsword._

_"Men you know what to do" the man with the great sword yelled_

_The men charged at Hiccup and he dueled with them with the leader remaining behind. He cut down one of the men with a slash and the other three soon followed with swift sword strikes._

_"You bastard!" Yelled the leader_

_They ran at Hiccup but Hiccup blocked with his sword he then countered with a side slash but it was counter. They were interlocked in slash and counter, slash and counter when Hiccup finally got the upper hand when the leader went for a sword thrust, Hiccup blocked to the side and then countered by driving his sword into the leader._

_As the man slowly looked down at the sword he was able to turn to the girl behind him_

_"Run!" he yelled before being kicked to the side_

_The girl got up to run but Hiccup grabbed her and he made his way out of the room as though he knew more guards where coming._

_"I have been ordered to rescue you come on we have to go."_

_"Let me go! get away from me you monster!"_

The present

Hiccup was still facing the door his hand on the handle. All of a sudden he started to laugh.

"Your right I am a monster. Try to get some more rest when your feeling better you and your friends can leave"

As Hiccup walked out of the room he made his way to Heather who was sitting by the fire with windshear and toothless. He went and sat beside them and started to talk to Heather about what happened.

"So what did you say" asked Heather

"I just laughed and said your right I am a monster" Hiccup explained.

"Hiccup I know you inside and out. You are most definitely not a monster. Your father is a monster. You are nothing like your father."

Hiccup knew she was right but he still had to face facts when his past came back to haunt him.

"Drago made me do horrible things, terrible things. The times he would send me to kill people i...still hear there screams. I remember my first kill, the gronckle, I told him that I didn't want to do it and he said to me that if I didn't do it then he would kill someone innocent. That day I became a monster. That day was the day when I thought about just ending the pain just stoping it all and let my self be free."

"Do you remember what happened the next day?" she asked

"He bought you. apart of me thinks that if you had not come into my life then I would be dead. "

"Hiccup people might call you Dragos champion but let's be real... you were a slave just like me. Hiccup you are not a monster I know monsters I've seen monsters you and I have fought monsters the difference that I've noticed is when they kill people when they torture people they want to do it. you never had a choice your life was stolen. your freedom was taken you had no rights. You're the kindest person I've ever met you rescue dragons at the risk of harm to yourself you free slaves and give them food out of your own pocket, I don't see a monster I see a man I would gladly lay down my life for and I know he would for me"

Heather was right Hiccup would gladly give up his life to save her. Heather was his best friend his closest confidant the one person he could trust above all else. She knew him better than anyone mostly because when he was too injured or too drunk to even stand Heather was the one to take care of him. When he would have nightmares and scream at the top of his lungs Heather was always the one who would rush in and restrain him, when he was a danger to himself and when things got really bad Heather would always talk him down bringing him back from the darkness.

Heather was attracted to girls and Hiccup new this and he accepted Heather without reservation. she had some small relationships in the past but nothing serious the only true constant in her life was Hiccup. when they escaped from Drago's ship. Hiccup taught Heather everything he knew on how to fight and in turn, she promised never to leave him.

The next day Astrid had awoken and had gotten up to see if she could find her friends. she walked out the door and found Ruffnut sitting on one of the couches. Astrid immediately went over to her and hugged her tightly

"I thought you were dead," she said hugging ruffnut hard

"No, the bastard just hit me over the head, hurt like hell though," ruff said jokingly

Astrid could see that there was a bandage over her friend's head. "Where's Fishlegs?" she asked

"He's still recovering he is to injured to move" ruff answered

Suddenly Heather the girl who had treated her wounds walked in she was carrying two cups of water and set it down near a table that was next to them

"hello glad to see your two are okay."

We're fine, thank you. Astrid said in a frustrated voice "where's Dragos champion."

Heather glared "don't call him that."

Ruffnut soon interjected, "Then what should we call him?"

"I don't know what you should call him all I know is he just doesn't like being called Dragos champion" she explained.

"Astrid looked at her almost as if she was challenging her, she then stood up and said in a frustrated voice "where is this champion."

"He's going to clean up the mess that you made"

"We didn't ask to be mugged" ruffnut interjected

"regardless he saved you guys and now he's got to go explain to their boss why they shouldn't retaliate because apparently they found out."

"Will he succeed?" Astrid asked

"Yes"

suddenly a ginormous dragon came and put his head near Heather. Astrid and Ruffnut both jumped up and quickly retreated to a small corner Heather looked at them as both of them who were seemingly terrified"This is my dragon her name is windshear."Of course, Astrid knew that Dragonriders would obviously ride dragons but seeing a dragon and a human up close was beyond abnormal not to mention terrifying. Heather soon told windshear to wait for her outside" you two stay here and rest while I go out there and take care of some things Eret will be by shortly to check on you please don't touch anything"

as Heather went away Astrid and Ruffnut went back to the couch "man she's scary" said Ruffnut

"she's not that scary. she's only scary because she has a dragon"

"do you think you could take her in a fight" ask Ruffnut

" not in my current condition, my head is killing me"

as they went back to their rooms to get more sleep Astrid kept thinking. how come this champion did not want to be called a champion most heroes she's ever met love boasting about their conquests and their titles. so why didn't he?

the next day Fishlegs finally awoke though he was still pretty week Astrid explained to him what had happened and he got a pretty good idea of the situation.

"The man that saved us other people call him Drago's champion so apparently he doesn't like to be called that and I don't know why we also can't hire him" explain to Astrid.

"So what you're telling me is we're screwed". said Fishlegs while laying down.

"Pretty much get some rest we need to leave as quickly as possible and make it back to berk.

While the three people he rescued we're back at the house recovering Hiccup was busy cleaning up the mess.

he went back to the body to see if he could identify which men they had belonged to and he noticed that one of the shields at an insignia on it. The insignia had a deer with spikes he realized it was Judah clan.

The Judah clan was pretty vicious when it came to raiding and pillaging they were a sect that broke off when Drago was killed. he knew the leader of them, he had done a couple of jobs for them. He also knew where they were.

As he flew to the part where they were most likely to be he thought to himself about Dragos attack on berk. maybe he owed them a debt. No, he wasn't responsible for the actions of his father, in fact, his father had stolen him from that land, in any case, the girls thought he was a monster there would be no point in working with her.

as he landed next to a building that had the same insignia on it he walked in telling toothless the fly above keeping an eye

as he walked in he saw people noticing him. immediately they looked at him and got up from their tables as he made his way to the back of the room he saw where a man was sitting. a large dark-haired man was eating fish with four other guys.

"so what brings the geat Drago's champion here," the dark-haired man asked

Hiccup looked at the five guys who are all staring at him intensely "your men, they attacked three people I've come to ask you to back off"

the man looked up Hiccup. "these people, I know them I've been raiding their town. they are on the verge of collapse they are good warriors at least one of them is, shes killed a lot of my men and she is a talented commander. Did she employ you because if so I can back off out of professional courtesy but if not then don't get in my way"

" I can't let you do that. There are things that I need. I can't have you going and attacking berk. I'm asking you as a friend please let it go out of respect for me and respect for Drago in his memory don't make me go to war with you over berk."

the man stood up and so did the four other guys sitting at the table.

" ah well shit had I known you get all serious and emotional with me id had dropped it already. Sit down my friend have a drink"

Hiccup was pleased with this arrangement and he did sit down to have one drink. he did not personally like this person but he was able to put on a show to let the person know that they were still in on good terms. after that, he left and called toothless down to pick him up and he went back to the house.

he then made his way to the blond-haired girl's room and knocked on the door. he heard from inside "come in"

as he came, the girl stood up as is she was expecting a fight

"what do you want" she asked in a hostile voice

"I took care of one of those raiders that was attacking your village they told me that they would stop and leave you alone though I doubt that they're the only ones who do it"

Astrid looked at him. she could have hugged him

"thank you. this is amazing."

"Don't thank me yet that was just one I'm sure there were other warlords raiding your village I only got rid of the one who was currently hunting you here."

As he was about to walk out when Astrid and spoke "I'm sorry for being so rude to you yesterday"

he stopped before he could leave "we've all done terrible things in this world, we have to live with what makes us lose sleep but it's what we do now that determines how much good and evil we have left in us. that's why I've decided to maybe take the job. I will go and meet with your chief to see what you are truly up against and if I think that you don't need my assistance I will leave but if you do need my assistance and I will stay. I'm not going to lie I will need something from you people in return so when I meet with your chief I will see what you have to offer in the way of resources I will not take your gold you will need that, your food will also be needed your weapons you will need to use to fight but I'm sure we can find something now you get some rest tomorrow will make the journey back."

Flashback

_As they rescue the girl they made there way back to the ship with the girl. She was kicking and biting and would not stop fighting. eret got the brunt of this._

_As they were on the boat Heather came Hiccup__"I thought this is a rescue, not an abduction"_

_"That's what I thought too but I looked everywhere else in the compound and she was all I could find"_

_"I will attempt to talk to her" heather said knowing that eret was getting his ass handed to him_

_As Heather walked over to the girl she could hear Eret try and fail to stop her from throwing things_

_"Please stop throwing things." _

_"Im not going back!"_

_"What are you talking about?"_

_"I won't do it. I won't be his!"_

_As Heather came in below deck she looked at Eret who was hiding behind a table__"Eret take a walk," said Heather_

_"Gladly, shes crazy"_

_Heather walked over to the girl who was holding a broken chair leg as a weapon._

_"Stay back, bitch."_

_"Why are you doing this whats wrong with you? can't you see where trying to help you"_

_The girl looked at Heather with anger and rage. "Is that what this is, help, you're sending me back to slavery! You're sending me back to be his wife."_

_Heather was taken back by this. This was not the job she signed up for __"What are you talking about those men kidnaped you"_

_"No, they saved me. And in return, I would tell them secrets about the chief that hired you."_

_No. how could this have happened Heather would never sign up for this and neither would Hiccup. She would have to do something__"Im sorry," Heather said feeling ashamed_

_"What," she said surprised_

_"Im sorry I didn't know, I would not have done the job if I had known that you would suffer like this" Heathers head was bowed in shame_

_"Well its a little too late for that"_

_"Maybe not. I will tell my leader about the situation."_

_"He won't help me, you mercenaries are all the same."_

_Hiccup was up top looking at the sea while petting toothless when he heard footsteps behind him. He quickly deduced that they were Heathers and turned to speak_

_"What did our guest have to say?" he asked_

_"We need to talk," Heather replied_

_Heather told Hiccup the whole situation and the look on his expression was mortifying. Without saying a word Hiccup got up and started below deck. As he reached the deck below he saw the girl in the corner. She was scared, but she had fight in her eyes her passion to not let anyone tame her was strong and Hiccup saw this. It was only matched by his own flame that was not put out every time drago tried to break him._

_"I have been informed of the situation and I have come to say... I am sorry. We will help you get rid of these bonds. Can you tell me your name?"_

_The girl looked stunned, she didn't know what to do. She slowly answers the question that had been asked __"My name is Nadia"_

_"Well, Nadia to show that we are sorry we will help you fake your death and once it's safe, get you on one boat ride to where ever you want to go with a bag of gold to start over."_

_"Why would you do that for me?"_

_"Because we were what you are, former slaves. Oh, by the way, I'm Hiccup this Heather and the man that you threw a chair at is Eret." _


	5. Chapter5

_The mercenary Chapter 5_

When the rest of the wounded were ready to leave they started to pack.

The mercenaries traveled light only taking extra weapons, armor, and clothing. As they got to the ships they all prepared to embark, though the mercenaries had offered to let them ride on the backs of their dragons since it would be much faster, the people had refused.

They made their way through the open sea and had the dragons pull the boat which gave them much more speed. Hiccup was at the front of the ship along with Eret and Heather was in the back talking to Ruffnut. By nightfall, Hiccup had to explain to Heather that they were already halfway, yet Astrid didn't believe them. It was at least another two more days but Hiccup assured her due to the dragons pulling of the boats that it was indeed only one more day.

The next day they made their way to the island. Hiccup sat alone on the boat at the front with Eret only saying a thing here or there. "Do you ever wonder how big the world is?"

"Nope," said Eret

"Not even a little?"

"I got bigger things on my mind"

"Like what?"

"Dinner"

"Your lucky you don't care," said Hiccup.

"Yep," Eret said casually.

"We have been to lands most people have never heard of and you still don't want to know if there is more out there"

"Everywhere we go it's all the same, dragons and war."

At the back of the boat Heather and Astrid where talking

Astrid Look to Heather "so what is his real name"

"His name is...well," Heather thought to her self what she would say. Hiccup didn't like using his name when working so he changed it to a different name, a sort of stage name if you will " we will tell you once we get to Berk"

Astrid decided not to press on with that question and instead ask something else

"what is it like to ride dragons," Astrid asked.

"it's one of the most liberating things you can do. we ride dragons and save them. We have a friend who takes care of the ones we save. We bring them to her and she gives them a home"

"you free them? aren't these ones your pets." Astrid exclaimed

Heather looks at her "no they aren't there are our friends, they are our equals, they were slaves like us once and they saved us once and we save them."

"Where I'm from you're supposed to fight dragons riding them just seem so wrong."

" I can't really blame you. Before this Eret used to capture dragons now he sets them free. We all have misconceptions about things that we don't know about but once we see that these creatures are just as beautiful as us and they can be just as gentle as us then the need to kill them immediately evaporates"

Astrid was astonished by how someone could think that they are beautiful. fighting dragons and stopping them from stealing food used to be a major problem, how could any person think that a dragon was gentle"Do you get mad at people when you see them hurt dragons or capture dragons?"

"I do but at the same time, dragons and humans have been at war for a long time that hatred doesn't just go away in an instant it needs to be taught. dragons can equally be as cruel to humans as we are to them. we need to teach each other coexist"

"Are there others like you? people who ride dragons"

"Oh yes, indeed there are whole tribes who ride dragons to the extent of the large ones like berk. we're not the only ones in the syndicate but we did start it"

"there are there more of you!"

" Not that many more but yes when we first started out it was just the three of us but then when we grew and learned we met other dragon riders and they joined us.

"Where are they now?"

"some of them are out doing other jobs. while others...well this job is dangerous, not all of us make it. When they are done with their jobs that they're working on they will meet us at Berk. We left a note at the house."

As she said this she could hear from Eret "I see land!"

Everyone ran to the front of the ship. They could see it also, it was Berk. Astrid, Fishlegs and Ruffnut all were relieved to see their home.

As they got there the village was lively. Everyone had to come out to see the mercenaries including the chief. as they got off of the ship and onto the dock Astrid was in front she was soon greeted by her mother Olga who hugged her tightly "I'm so glad you're okay. let me see you,"

"Mom, I'm fine but I need to see the chief"

"yes of course...are those the warriors" Olga whispered

"yes mom"

"then all is not lost, thank thor"

As they started walking Hiccup leaned into Eret's ear and told him to walk in front and when they met the chief Eret was to introduce himself first.

Whenever they took a job everyone always assumed that Eret was the leader and they were always shocked to find that the person behind him was, in fact, the leader. Hiccup signal to the dragons that they were to fly above and to not come down near the village and the dragons complied.

As they walked into the village people were staring at them with great curiosity. when they reached the middle of the town they finally saw the chief. Eret walked up and the chiefs spoke.

"Welcome great dragon master. I'm so grateful that you have decided to help us please let us talk in the great hall"

Eret stepped aside saying "My name is Eret son of Eret and this is our leader of the dragon guild syndicate he who sits upon a night fury. "

As Hiccup walked forward Heather was behind him and the chief looked surprised to see that he wasn't the leader, though he soon composed himself

"Sir please allow me to escort you to the great hall." Hiccup nodded his head.

As they reach the great hall. Astrid was walking with the chief explaining to him everything that happened and the chief was shocked, worried and wondered why this mercenary had decided to come even though they couldn't pay.

As they walked into the great hall the chief sat down on his seat and Hiccup stood before him.

"My commander has told me the situation and I'm sure you know ours. We have been under siege from raiders for a long time. now our warriors are good but the raiding parties are massive, our food is low and we cannot hold out against another attack that comes out at us. luckily if we hold out another 3 months then our crops will be ready to harvest."

Hiccup whispered into Heather's ear and Heather soon spoke: "What is it that you want us to do."

"From what I hear your reputation is unrivaled from any other mercenary out there. with you fighting alongside us we will certainly last 3 months and with your night fury, it will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies letting them know that they will never be allowed to come back without terrible consequences."

Hiccup then whispered into Heather's ear again. "We looked at how much gold you have and even if you did give us all of it you don't have enough for 3 months. When I talked to this girl she said You had other things."

"We do have other things. Yes, we have wood and good lumber and medicine. You can pick whatever you want really."

Astrid spoke "and that we would be in their debt, chief I told them that we had other things."

Hiccup whispered into Heather's ear and Heather spoke."My leader has decided that your gold is not enough however he will not let people die, he will take a look at your defenses and your resources and decide what you have to offer in the meantime you are in his debt and under his protection and he will train you men and you commanders. But you need to listen to him and me if this is going to work. We will turn your army into a professional fighting force. We will act as your generals while we train your commanders to fill those positions."

The chief got up from his table and walked over to them. Heather walked over to the chief and the chief spoke. "Thank you so much I'm sure we will find something that will repay our debt to you. Please can you tell me your names.?"

Heather nodded and moved back "My name is Heather, my large friend you talk to is Eret son of Eret and this...is Ragnar, he who sits upon a night fury, killer of masters and the red death, known from Gaul to Mongolia, Carthage to Constantinople, finder of new worlds and old." She said then pointing to Hiccup

As they both walked out of the great hall they called their dragons down to pick them up. People looked on as dragons came down brought them away. Astrid ran out. she could see them flying to a clifftop. The way their dragons took them was so effortless.

At the top of the mountain Hiccup and Heather landed "Where should we start," Heather asked

Hiccup got off toothless "Well, we're a little lucky berk got the advantage of only being attacked at the docks so they can put their defenses there. probably why they haven't been overrun yet.

"What kind of defenses are we thinking," Heather asked, walking to the edge.

Hiccup followed her "I'm thinking improvised coupled with explosive"

"You always did have a flair for the dramatic" Heather laughed.

"What about the warriors?" Hiccup asked.

Heather sat next to him and she put her arm around Hiccup "For what I could see everyone there looked pretty strong and lots of healthy people. I'll have to see what their leadership is like. if their leadership is crap then the organization of their army will fall apart. Here's the bigger question" Heather walked forward putting her hand on Hiccups shoulder "how are you doing?"

"What?" What looking at her with an eyebrow raised

"you just returned home walking on your home island for the first time, how are you doing?"

" it's different it's new I can't really explain it"

"I get it your focusing on work trying to use that as a shield to block out the scariness of being home I got it.

Hiccup looked at Heather and smiled "come on let's head back Eret's probably got himself a new girlfriend by now

"Oh I take that action 5 gold" Heather laughed

Flashback

_After telling Eret about the incident they all were in agreement that they needed to help Nadia. Hiccup told Eret that he would be back and that he needed to get the supplies to fake the death of Nadia._

_Nadia looked at them all "so wait you're doing what?"_

_"We are faking your death," said Hiccup. "Now Eret I will be back I got to go get some heads and a body."_

_"Why do you need all those?" Nadia asked_

_"Because if we show the chief a dead burned body and say it's yours then he will think your dead." Said Eret._

_"And the heads?" She said with an eyebrow raised_

_"He will want revenge and we will tell him we killed the men who killed you," said Heather_

_The girl looked kind of impressed. these people knew a lot and it seemed if they had done this before._

_Some time passed and Hiccup returned with a large sack in front of him hanging over toothless and another one behind him that was smaller. He got off of toothless and brought them over to Heather and Eret and told them that the body had been burned and that it was unrecognizable and that the heads were from the battle that had taken place before._

_"Where did you get the body," Asked Nadia_

_"It's better if you don't know" Hiccup replied_

_As they made their way back to the island where the chief lived Nadia grew more uneasy. Hiccup had learned that she was just a child when she was kidnapped by this tribe from her land in Russia and she was being forced to marry the new chief named Tuba. Nadia was slim, had dark red hair and had a slight accent. She spoke four languages. She was smart and once she stopped throwing things she was noticeably kind._

_When they got to the island they informed the chief Tuba that the girl was dead. The chief broke out in anger and rage he immediately ordered men to get ready for war but before he could finish Hiccup brought forth the heads of the men who had killed the chief's fiance. The chief was grateful that the men who had killed his bride were killed as well. He thanked the mercenaries and paid them half since they did fail at their mission._

_As they were sailing back on their boat Hiccup was at the front of the ship sitting with his feet hanging off the side, his back leaning against toothless who was sleeping. Nadia was observing him for a while trying to figure out how to approach Hiccup. When suddenly Hiccup said while sitting__"You going to just stand there all day or are you gonna sit and enjoy the sunset with me"_

_Nadia thought that she had been quite enough not to disturb him let alone not be seen but she soon walked forward and sat next to Hiccup. __(punch) Nadia punched Hiccup in the shoulder. "That's for kidnapping me"_

_"Ow im sorry," he said grabbing his shoulder in pain_

_She then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek__"That's...for everything else "_

_Hiccup was stunned, He had never been put in a situation like this before and he didn't know what to do.__"When we get to my home you can stay there as long as you like until you decide you're ready to go back to Russia"_

_"You're sending me back?_"

_"I thought you wanted to go back"_

_"I left when I was young I don't even remember much of where I came from "_

_"you don't have to go back"_

_"Where will I go "_

_"As I said, __You can stay with us until you decide where you want to go."_

Present

The chief had pulled Astrid back into the great hall to speak with her in private "Astrid... you have saved the village, you are what every chief looks for in a tribe member, fierce, loyal, honorable, fearless. But now your tribe needs you now more than ever."

Astrid looked at Spitelout. She was confused, wasn't the hard part over. "Sir I don't know what you mean"

Spitelout sighed and put his hands on Astrid's shoulders. "I want you to learn everything that you can from them. Strategy, tactics, training, everything so that when they leave we will have you."

Astrid didn't know what to say, she knew that she had to train with them but the chief was making it seem like she was going to have to train twice as hard. "Sir what exactly are you trying to say? I know I will receive training from them."

"It's not that. I need you to spend as much time around him as possible to learn as much from (him) as possible and become just as much like him as possible and if possible find out what he wants, what he needs what he cares about. If he cares about someone I want to know who. If he likes spices I want to know which ones. If he wants slaves then what kind.I guess the reason that I'm saying this is because if we can figure out how to get out of his debt then we need to find out."

"And you consider threatening his loved ones as a good idea."

"I don't like it but if you can't find out what he wants then you need to find out who he loves."

"Why ask me?"

"because you have more experience with them than any of us

"I'm going to talk with the mercenaries," she said as she walked out of the great hall

As she looked around for the mercenaries she could only find one. The large tall muscular man that called himself Eret. He was talking to three girls and had them all embroiled in a story about a tail of adventure when Astrid went behind him

"Excuse me," she said annoyed

"I will find you some other time ladies I must meet with one of the village commanders," Eret said while talking to the three girls he then turned around and faced Astrid"What can I do for you sweetheart," he said with a smile on his face

"Call me sweetheart again and I will knock that smile right off your face."

"Oh calm down I'm just trying to be nice, now tell me what do you need."

"Where is your boss"

"He is not here right now. can I take a message"

"I need to speak with him," she said more angrily

"Look, He is out planning his strategy on how he is going to train you people all right "

"Don't you think that we should be at that meeting? "

"Well, it's best if we let him just observe for now. He needs to get a feel for things before he can help anyone."

"Fine when he gets back tell him you people can stay in an extra house we have for important guests."

"Sure I will pass that right along"

_Flashback_

_"And this is one of the spare bedrooms in the house that you can sleep in." Hiccup said looking at Nadia._

_"It's big."_

_"Yep, Feel free to move about the house whenever you like except at night the dragons don't like it when you do that."_

_"I will be sure to keep that in mind," she said smiling at him. She then went in and sat down on the bed _

_"Hiccup can ask you something "_

_"Yes of course "_

_"When you became free what's the first thing you did ?"_

_"hmm ... I went and bought some new clothes."_

_"Really'' she said giggling_

_"What mind smelled really bad."_

_Nadia looked down at the floor in shame "when I earn some money I will be sure to do that first."_

_"Just get some sleep now, tomorrow is a new day."_


	6. Chapter6

_Chapter6_

Present

It had been a week since the mercenaries had arrived on berk and so far all they had done was watch the villagers. when they had discovered that berk had dragon prisoners their release was demanded and was done.

Their leader finally ordered all the warriors to gather in the field that was large enough to train them all. He told Astrid that she needed to bring herself and her officers to him once the army had gathered on the field.

Hiccup took a hard glance at the officers and saw how some were big and some were small which was good, it either meant that they were chosen for there skill or he was wrong and they all bought they're away in "Are these the officers." Hiccup said to Astrid

Annoyed at the obvious question Astrid replied in an annoyed voice"Yes, these are the ones who I rely on in the battle to help lead my men, 15 in total"

"Only fifteen? you need more than that for an army of this size."

"We can train more," she said angrily.

"Oh we will but in the meantime, we will work with what we got"

Before Astrid could say something rude back eret made his way to the field

As Eret, Heather, and Hiccup arrived at the field he was greeted by about 600 Vikings who were scattered around talking, goofing off and not paying attention

"Attention!" Eret said loudly "I am here to train you scum but before I can do this, I need to organize your lot into smaller units, so please find yourself a partner, someone you trust, someone you like and someone you can live with. It is very important that you can work with this person and that they can work with you. As of right now, you are responsible for your partner and they are responsible for you. If you fail, he fails and if he fails you fail. In battle, you are now responsible for watching each other's back. And when one of you dies it is the other one's job to go to the other one's family and tell the bad news. It's not only that you will share a tent with this person on the campaign. You will go a guard duty and you will cook and clean and live with the person. So choose your partner wisely." After 30 minutes everyone had a partner." Now that you have a partner we are going to organize you into what we call a decanus. A decanus has ten men or five groups now me and my friend here are going to go around and make decanus out of you" After about an hour of making decanus's and lining them up, they were finally finished "You all now must remember who is in your group right now there are 60 of you small units. My friend is going to give you a number and that is going to be your decanus number. Tomorrow we will begin training for real."

_Flashback_

_"For real! " Nadia said looking at Hiccup with a tear in her eye_

_Hiccup just nodded his head_

"Thank you so much," Nadia said as she jumped and hugged Hiccup as hard as she could

_"You said you needed some new clothes soooo Let's go and gets some," he said smiling_

_On their way to the market, Nadia was enthralled by all of the interesting things that were around her. She even found things that were from her home country. She surprised Hiccup when some of the merchants started to speak different languages here and she spoke back fluently. After buying her clothes that she insisted she didn't need and getting jewelry that made her blush when he put it on her they went to get food and head back home to cook it_

_As they were walking home Nadia turned to Hiccup __"Can you teach me?" she said in a quick voice_

_"What?"_

_"I want to learn how... to not feel afraid, learn how to fight like the way you did when you defeated all those men at the compound. I want to learn how to free myself if I ever become a slave again. Can you teach me?"_

_Hiccup took Nadia and hugged her as she hugged him this morning. __"Of course I will nothing would make me happier"_

Present

The next day the team had decided that they would split the army of 600 people into 3 teams of 200. Within each group of 200, they could be split up into smaller groups of 50. Hiccup decided that Eret would teach tactics and battle strategy since he had the most experience before Hiccup. Heather would be in charge of training them in what they learned and teaching them about ways the enemy fights. Hiccup to both Eret and Heather's disappointment was going to teach the Vikings how to be a professional army. On Dragos ship, a soldier was allowed to drink and indulge in their own vices as long as it didn't get in the way of drago or his other men or his responsibilities. Dragos men were disciplined and would not dare to cross him, each man on Dragos ship knew their place and would rise when their commanding officer was walking in. most importantly Dragos men followed orders, they knew what would happen if they didn't follow orders. Each day the 200 man group would rotate to a new person in order of Eret, Heather, Hiccup. Hiccup also disliked that each day the officers would follow him around for a bit while he trained the troops teaching them a chain of command and orders and other stuff

Astrid, of course, trying every second to learn as much as she could from these warriors

Flashback

_"Again!"Hiccup yelled kicking Nadia to the ground._

_Hiccup and Nadia had been training for weeks in the forest. Hiccup was still teaching her basic forms and techniques but Nadia was a quick learner. They were fighting with long wooden sticks since Nadia was not ready for real weapon sparring._

_Nadia got up from the ground. "that really hurt" she said getting back into position_

_They both circled each other waiting for the other one to strike._

_Hiccup made the first move. He struck high among for the head but Nadia blocked she then tried to counter with a side attack but Hiccup blocks going for a side attack of his own, Nadia was able to block the first shot to her right side but Hiccup followed up with a barrage of swings, Nadia blocked as many as she could but Hiccup moved to fast. _

_"You're leaving yourself wide open," Hiccup said walking backward catching his breath._

_Nadia got back into position._

_Hiccup came at her again. They dueled until Hiccup got the best of Nadia and he was standing over her_

_"You're getting better but... you still got a long way to go"_

_Nadia looked up at him while lying on the ground. She then grabbed Hiccup's leg and tripped him until he was on the ground and she climbed on top of him with a fist raised._

_"How is this?" she said, sitting on top of him._

_For once she finally got the best of him. though Nadia doubted that it would happen again_

_Hiccup looked up at her. Suddenly they went from training to staring into each other's eyes._

_Hiccup blushed as he looked up at the girl on top of him. Nadia soon realized where she was and she started to panic.__"Oh...oh, Maybe we should get up." She said getting up quickly her cheeks red with embarrassment_

_Hiccup got up as well__"maybe we should call it a day," he said putting his hand on his head __As they were heading back home Hiccup looked over to Nadia.__"Have you thought about where you might go once your training is done?'' Hiccup asked._

_Nadia looked at him as they were walking back to the village "I thought I might try and settle down somewhere, I don't know what I want to do or where I will go once im finished"_

_Hiccup looked at Nadia and stopped walking and Nadia noticed and stopped as well. "Nadia ... I wanted to ask you something."_

_Nadia looked at Hiccup and moved in closer " of course you can ask me anything ."_

_"I want to ask... I wanted to see if you wanted to stay...with us...with the dragon guild syndicate, you said that you don't remember your family in Russia and so I wanted to know if you wanted to be apart of this family.'' Hiccup looked at her, his cheeks were red._

_Nadia was on the verge of tears she had wanted a family for so long. All she wanted was to belong somewhere._

_"...Hiccup I..."_

_"You don't have to," he said quickly thinking he made a mistake, "I just want you to know that... I just want you to know if you want a family then you can join us"_

_Nadia paused before jumping into Hiccups arms and hugging him with all of her strength_

_"Id thought you'd never ask" Nadia looked up at Hiccup still hugging him, her arms around his neck. Suddenly she did something she did not expect to do and Hiccup didn't expect it either._

_Hiccup was looking down at her. He was glad that she was hugging him but all of a sudden, she kissed him! He didn't know what to do. He had fought armies, he had dueled the greatest champions and had never frozen but now he was petrified, not with fear but with the feelings that have overwhelmed him since the day he met her. Once the kiss was over Nadia backed away with Hiccup not saying anything_

_"What's wrong...was that a mistake...im sorry," she said with her hands over her mouth. Hiccup moved in until he was inches from her face,'' What are you doing" she asked"_

_Suddenly Hiccup kissed her. Nadia didn't know how to react by kissing back as she leaned into his lips. Her body trembled as she put her arms around his neck for support. Soon Hiccup spoke, " I was hoping that you would stay with us... with me."_

_"Nothing would make me happier"_

Present

Training went on as usual and there was a noticeable improvement.

Astrid was trying to get closer to the leader of the syndicate and every time she came near him he would disappear or fly away on toothless.

Every night Hiccup could be found in the great hall with Heather or Eret and large amounts of wine and alcoholic drinks. Once Hiccup was drunk Heather would help him up and get him back to the house that berk gave them.

But tonight, Astrid found Ragnar stumbling to the docks.

His stance was shaking and he could barely stand, one from a distance would think he was attacked.

Astrid came over, wondering what was wrong

"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" She said angrily as the man kept stumbling

"Ah commander, its la-late you shouldn't be out here," he said with a slurred cracked voice

"This is my village don't tell me where to go," she said frustrated

As Hiccup looked at the docks he soon collapsed on the ground. He then turned around on his back and looked up at the sky. The night was full of stars and constellations and his Time in Greece taught him of the different constellations and in this clear sky he saw all of them

"Hey you, I'm talking to you!" She said standing over him

"You're blocking my view," he said in a monotone nasally voice

Astrid turned to look at the sky. She saw what he was looking at and had to admit it was beautiful. The night was clear and the air was fresh

"What are you doing?" She asked moving to the side.

"Finding a place to sleep"

"Oh, what our home is not good enough for you!" She said insulted.

Astrid looked at the man on the ground and thought about how pathetic he was. This was no champion. It was barely even a man.

Before she could get a response Ragnar was past out.

"Can't just leave you here?" she said taking pity on him

As she dragged him on her shoulders she thought about where she would put him. The man awoke and when he realized what happening he spoke.

"No, can't go home." He said weakly

"Dammit," she said looking around

She then began walking home.

As she got home she laid him on her couch, she took a moment to see the man passed out in front of her. Such a dangerous person in a regular size body then what you'd expect.

As she got some blankets for him she realized that she had just invited a man into her house. Under normal circumstances, this would be inappropriate but she knew it would be fine for now

As she walked back in with the blankets she found Ragnar still asleep his prosthetic still attached.

"Wow you were tired," she said before going and turning out the fire and letting the candle burn some more.

As she went to bed she could not help but think of how interesting this person was. She thought of how this person came to be associated with drago.

Next day

Astrid had gotten up early in the morning first to use the bathroom and then to get food for Ragnar.

As she was walking back to her house with bread and meat she saw a girl sneaking around. The girl was around 5ft tall and wore a mask. She had silver hair and she had a very small frame. It was still kinda dark but the sun was coming up Astrid dropped the stuff she was caring and ducked behind a corner of a house

"Dammit I don't have my ax," she whispered. She did have a knife with her but if that girl was a trained Assassin out to get Ragnar she would need help. Most of the guards were around the perimeter of the village a few guards would patrol but if she could make enough noise she would alert more guards.

Before Astrid could do anything two guards approached from the right side

"Hey you show yourself," they said holding up a lantern at the girl.

The girl said nothing but backed away from the door.

"Take off that mask." One of the guards said. Then the guard reached down to grab the girl's arm to take her away. When he took it in a flash the girl had punched the man in the throat. The man backed away in pain grabbing his throat choking on the collapse windpipe. The next man dropped the lantern and held the spear at the girl.

"Stop intruder, intruder, intruder!" The man started screaming.

Astrid was running towards them to help but before she could get there the second guard thrust his spear at the girl. The girl dodged to the left grabbing the spear with her hands on her right side. She moved down the spear until she was in the range of the guard and she kicked him in the head. The guard dropped the spear and backed away.

This fight had lasted only 15 seconds

Four more guards had arrived and Astrid had finally gotten to the fight. One of the guards tossed Astrid a sword and the five of them surrounded her. The girl took out two stick-like things, she then flicked them to the sides of her and they expanded. She took the expanded sticks and attached them to the ends together until it made one long staff. As Astrid and the guards stalked the girl about to attack Astrid noticed that the girl's mask was painted one-half pink the other had black, it was intriguing to see the expression in such a warrior. Soon one of the warriors attacked with an ax but the girl dodged to the right using her staff to hit the weapon out of the man's hand then she jumped kicking him in the head knocking him unconscious. Astrid signaled to one of the guards to go and get help while the rest of them would try to stop her.

The two remaining guards attacked together. Astrid slashed with her sword but the girl blocked with her staff countering hitting Astrid in the head forcing her to back away. The other guard attacked with a hammer but before he could get in range the girl had tripped him with the staff. The girl was about to hit the guard with her staff but Astrid tacked her to the ground. Astrid tried to get hold of the girl's arms to hold her down but when she tried to reach for them the girl effortlessly put Astrid in an arm lock. Before the girl could break Astrid's arm the guard from before tried to stomp on the girl but she rolled out of the way. The unconscious guard was awake and the guard who was punched in the throat had rushed back into the fight.

The girl saw them run towards her and with two more in front of her and with her weapon away from her she needed to think. She ran at the two guards who had gotten up since they were the ones without weapons. One of the guards tried to punch her out she easily countered grabbing on to the arm forcing the man to the ground with a wrist lock. She didn't have time to do damage though because the next guard was there and he tried to kick her off but before he could the girl had grabbed his leg in the area and moved him to the ground. This Time she was able to jump on the man's groin. He screamed in pain.

She turned to see that more guards and villagers where here she had nowhere to run. She quickly made her way to her staff and Astrid tried to stop her but before she could the girl had thrown two knives at Astrid which she only had a split second to deflect with her sword. Now the girl had her staff.

"You're surrounded on all sides. There are almost 30 villagers here and more on the way. Put down your weapon and come peacefully"

The girl only looked at Astrid for a moment then turned her head to the sky

"Ssssshheeeee" she made a loud deafening whistle with her hand. Suddenly two nadders came crashing down and stood at the side of the girl. The dragons where wearing armor and one was blue and one was green. The girl started twirling her staff to show Astrid that she was ready for a fight.

Astrid was about to give the order to attack when she heard a door slam shut

"ENOUGH!" Ragnar yelled walking out of the house. "What in Thor's name is going on here can't a guy get some sleep around here. And why are there dragons, stormfly, earthquake in the air now"

"Sir what's going on?" Asked a guard

All of you back to you posts

Astrid grabbed the food she dropped and began to walk to Ragnar but he noticed that he had grabbed the girl by the back of her clothes and Astrid realized she had tried to escape. Astrid made her way over to the two and when she got there she couldn't have expected this.


	7. Chapter 7

, Chapter 7

"Largatha! I can't believe that you would just come here and attack them what were you thinking, oh wait you weren't thinking."

"But"

"No buts I sent you on your first solo mission and now you think you can attack an entire village of warriors."

"But Ragnar I thought "

Astrid watched as Hiccup/Ragnar stood on her front porch with the girl, her head lowered and getting scolded by Ragnar.

"You didn't think! What if you had hurt one of them… what if you had gotten hurt." Hiccup then took off the girl's mask to show a very young girl with a tear running down her face. "Do you know what would happen if you got hurt." Hiccup then took the girl into his arms and hugged her. "I love you kid but next time you can't do that"

"Ok uncle rag." She said in a sad voice

"Uhhh Ragnar you mind telling me what the hell is going on," Astrid said walking up to the two

"Sure but let's got inside"

As they came inside Astrid made some breakfast for them all

"Ragnar, who is this?"

"This is my niece, lagertha "

Largatha with a smile waved at Astrid as she ate her food.

"Ragnar, who is this?" Asked largatha as she wolfed down her food

"This is commander hoferson and we have been hired to protect and train the village against raiders and enemy clans."

"The way you fought you need some training." lagertha said with a snarky tone

Astrid just shot Hiccup/Ragnar a glare and then spoke.

"So lagertha how old are you?"

"I'm 13"

Astrid almost choked on the yak that she was eating when she heard this. How could a thirteen-year-old not only ride dragons but defeat and hold off seven trained warriors

"Trained her myself with the help of her...wack" as he was talking Astrid's door was kicked open and in came a what could only be described as a bloodthirsty Heather.

"WHERE IS SHE!" Heather YELLED OUT

"She's fine Heather, no one is hurt" as Hiccup said this largatha had ducked behind a pillar in the center that supported the house.

Largatha soon moved from behind it

"Hi...mom" she said raising her hand in the air awkwardly.

As Largeatha said this Astrid spit out some of the yak milk that she was drinking.

"What! That's your mother"

Before Largeatha could respond Heather had rushed over and hugged Largeatha as hard as she could.

"Uh.. mom your.. squeezing… me...I can't breathe."

"I heard what happened out there and I thought you were hurt"

"Mom I'm fine"

"Good" as soon as Heather said this she went from hugging to grabbing Largeathas ear and pulling her out the door. And Astrid and Hiccup fallowed.

"Ow ow ow wow wow mom I'm sorry it won't happen again."

"Your damn right it won't happen again I'm not letting you leave her without one of us again"

"Mmmmooooommmm! Stop" she said in pain

"Heather I already scolded the girl she's pretty sorry about it." Hiccup said

"Uhhh she hasn't even begun to be sorry for it.." she said stomping her way to the house that she came from.

All while this was happening Astrid couldn't help but laugh at how similar her family was. If she had done something like this then her mom would have acted similarly.

As they reached the guest house Heather told Largeatha to wait in the other room.

"Mom comes on I thought Ragnar needed help it was an honest mistake."

"I don't want to hear it now go"

As she stormed off Heather,Hiccup and Astrid sat down at the table and Hiccup poured some ale for himself.

"Don't be so hard on the kid it was a misunderstanding," Astrid said

"You don't tell me how to parent and maybe I won't take revenge on you for attacking my daughter!" She said glaring at her

Astrid felt the hostile tone in the sentence. Heather was clearly protective of the girl.

"Heather I think it is safe to say it was an accident." Hiccup/Ragnar said

Before they said anything thing Eret stepped in to throw the door. "Sir I need to talk to you"

Hiccup walked out with Eret while Heather stayed with Astrid and Largeatha in the house.

"what happened"

"I stepped out to get food and when I came back I found her at my door with her mask on but before i could confront her she was confronted by two guards and they asked her to identify herself and when she failed to do so they grabbed her and she fought back. "

"How did she fight," Heather asked

"She took me and 6 other guys down. You trained her well."

"Heather I'm sorry for the fight I didn't know she was your daughter"

"It's fine I'm just a little protective of her."

"She sure knows how to fight. you trained her well."

"she's a fighter when we found her on one of our jobs in Gaul, she was unconscious in the middle of a war zone. We brought her back to camp and when she awoke she didn't know who she was or where she was."

"Did she have anything on her to show where she may have come from?"

"nothing on her when I searched her body. When she woke up I was the first person she saw and from that point on she would not leave my I gave her a bath I did find something"

"What"

She had a full tattoo on her back. It was one of the most beautiful tattoos I had seen, it must have been done by a master. But what was most striking about it was what was on it. Someone had tattooed Valkyrie wings on her"

"Hmm I take it she didn't know anything about how she got those tattoos"

"No, when I took a mirror and showed her, the look of fear was heartbreaking,"

"I would have been terrified to not knowing who I was and to have strange drawings on me"

"I told Ragnar that he should finish the job without me and that I would stay at camp with Largeatha to take care of her since I could not just leave her. While everyone was away we just sat and talked and wandered around camp. I went into one of the tents for moment to grab some food for lunch but when I had returned Largeatha was not outside of the tent where I had left her. I ran around camp searching for her and couldn't find her. I then saw tracks leading into the forest and I grabbed my ax, I didn't have wind shear with me, Ragnar had asked for barrow her. When I ran in through the forest following the tracks I saw her in a clearing."

"What was she doing"

She was looking up. I went to grab her and get her and take her back to camp but when I approached her a monstrous nightmare came crashing down"

Flashback

Look out!"

Heather ran with her ax raised. A monster's nightmare had come crashing down was feet away from the little girl. Heather came and throw a knife at the dragon as it was getting closer. The dragon backed away as she grabbed the girl and ran for the trees. Before they could reach the forest a large flame shot hit in front stopping them from escaping. Heather turned to the girl "I want you to run as fast as you can. Go back to camp and hide."

"What will you do?" She said looking up at Heather.

"I will hold her off" Heather knew this girl had a better chance to live if she stayed and fought. Heather grabbed her ax and Ran at the monster's nightmare. She swung her ax at the head of the dragon but the Beast turned its body swinging its tail at Heather hitting her. As she was sent to the ground feet away Heather Saw that the girl had not run away.

Slowly the dragon moved towards the girl. "Run girl run!" Heather yelled trying to get up

As the dragon became only feet away from the girl. Heather looked on in tears as the girl just stood in front of a monstrous nightmare.

The girl looked up at the dragon as it opened its jaws but she was not afraid… in fact, she felt almost no fear looking down the mouth of a dragon. Maybe it was better to die like this. At least now she wouldn't be afraid of what she could not remember.

Suddenly two nadders came crashing down.

Heather was finally on your feet and she was running towards the girl while the nadders were fighting with the monstrous nightmare.

When Heather reached the girl she hugged her tightly out of instinct. She then turned to the dragon fight that was happening.

As the nadders finished fighting off the monstrous nightmare they turned and slowly walked toward Heather and the girl.

They came to their defense Heather still had the girl behind her.

The girl was watching this all godown and when she saw the nadders something seemed strangely familiar. She couldn't even remember her own name but these dragons… it was like she had seen them somewhere.

She knew she had to get a closer look so she got up. Heather tried to stop her but the girl didn't even recognize the hand that was holding her arm. As she approached the dragons they approached her. One of the dragons was great and the other was blue. She noticed that they had saddles on them already.

The dragons were a foot away from her head and but the girl had no fear at all, it felt like she had known these dragons before but this was the first time seeing them. Something in her told her to hold out her hand, these dragons where. Not acting aggressively, not like the last one, both the girl and Heather noticed that.

When the girl raised her hand the great dragon stepped forward and rested its forehead into the palm of her hand. Heather watched with amazement as this happened. Who was this girl? How did she know to do this and did she know these dragons and why did they have Saddles? These were all questions that she thought to her self.

The blue dragon bowed its head in submission to both the girl and to Heather it seamed and when the girl went to the dragon's side heather fallowed.

"What are you doing," Heather asked as the girl was looking at the saddle with pockets and other stuff on it.

"I doing know something tells me that I have seen this dragon before," the girl said looking at the saddle.

The dragon was still calm and Heather notice that it acted like wind shear when she was about to go for a ride.

The girl noticed on the saddle that there was a name on it "earthquake" when she said this the dragon looked at her and nodded her with her head. The girl felt calm when the dragon did this, she didn't know why but it felt familiar.

Inside the pocket, there were a knife and town sticks. She first looked at the sticks and showed them to Heather and when Heather examined them she figured out what they were "flick" Heather flicked the sticks to the side and they became longer. She then connected them and she made a staff. "It's a staff kid," she said handing it to the girl. Again the girl could not explain it but this staff felt so good in her hands. Then she looked at the knife and found that the blade handle had a name carved in on it.

"Largeatha," the girl said out loud. Something about this blade something about this staff, about these dragons. It scared her that she did not know why they keeper showing up to her or why whenever she touched them she felt like she had seen them before.

What does that mean" asked Heather tho she knew it was a name.

"I...i think it's my name," she said looking down at it

Heather could tell that this was all a lot for the girl so she decided she would trie to help cheer her up. " does it sound like your name"

"I don't know I can't even remember how old I am, I'm terrified I want to go home but I don't know where that is" she said with a tears coming down her face " I'm scared, I just want to know what is happening but I don't even know if I have a family"

Heather felt heartbroken for this little girl. Out of nowhere she just hugged her and laid her head on the girl's head as the little girl sobbed into her chest. "I was taken from my family, I don't remember what they look like. Then I started a new family and gave my self a new life, stick with me kid and we will find your home." She said as the little girl was looking up at her face.

"It does feel like my name. I think I will keep it"

The present

"Two nadders came down during the fight. Are those the dragons we saw.?"

"Ya, stormfly and earthquake Largatha rides earthquake and storm fly just follows them around."

"How did you come to be her mother. I mean if you don't mind me asking."

"After all of that we went back to camp and I told Ragnar about what happened"

He agreed that we would take her with us and look for her family or if we could find someone who had seen the dragons and could point us in the right direction of where they came from.

Over time while she was with us she became less like a tag-along and more like a member of the family. I would watch her feed her wash her train her and protect her and our bond grow closer. a year of searching and going all across the archipelago and the mainland we found nothing. No birth family, no tribe that recognizes her or her dragons that fallow us everywhere.

FLASHBACK

After a year of searching and them finding nothing, Heather was worried that when she told Largeatha that the chances of finding her family was thin and she should not hold out hope. It would be heartbreaking to hear. Heather had grown very close to Largeatha. So close that it was noticeable to everyone.

Hiccup Eret Nadia and Heather all sat down while Largeatha was in the other room and they discussed what they would do when they told her that it was a slim chance that they would find her family or where she came from.

"Who will tell her" asked Eret drinking ale

"I will, as leader of the syndicate I will tell everyone what is their business, that is my burden to bear"

"No, I should I brought her to hear I should tell her" interrupted Heather.

I think that we are getting ahead of hour selves here. What happens after we tell her" asked Nadia looking at all three of them "it's not like she is going to go live on her own the girl is only 10"

"I won't be the one to kick her out," said Eret

She can remain with us but someone will have to take care of her and assume parental responsibility. She is just a child and she needs someone to take care of her while we are working. Or course if you assume this role it will not affect your role as a mercenary. It just means that when you are here or out on a job with us you have to take care of her, of course, we will help but you will get the lion's share." Hiccup said this looking at everyone. They where all Still young so taking care of a ten-year-old child was a big commitment but it did not surprise him when Heather stud up.

"If she accepted me then I will adopt her as my own with you permission leader."

"Heather I think that you would be great for the job, so you have my permission From the order of the dragon guild syndicate if Largeatha accepts you to adopt her as your own."

"We still haven't decided who will tell her yet." Said, Nadia

"I will. If she is going to be apart of our family then she most learn that all news good or bad will come from me. Heather, I will tap on the door and when I do you come in."Heather understood

Hiccup walked into the room where Largeatha was playing with a terrible terror. Hiccup was surprised at how quickly she had become so used to handling dragons. He pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat next to it. Largeatha and Hiccup weren't extremely close yet and she was still only comfortable around Nadia or Heather but she looked up to Hiccup. both as a leader and as a protector

"Largeatha can I talk to you for a minute"

"Of course sir, " she said putting down a terrible tear as it crawled over to Hiccups' shoulder.

"Please you can call me Hiccup although when we're working you remember what I told you to call me right?"

"Yeah, you told me to call you Ragnar. Why is that?"

"Well it kinda has to do with what I came in here to talk to you about." Hiccup pulled out a large map and laid it down on the bed that she was sitting on "we have been to many places and each place we've been to I have asked them if their map is as complete or if it is bigger than mine and no one has outdone my map. Largatha we have been to every tribe every Kingdom and every village on this map and each tribe kingdom or village I made it a purpose to ask them if they had known you or your dragons and none of them had said that they had. Do you understand what I'm saying"

Largatha looked at the map. She realizes that she had been to all these places with them. It had been quite remarkable to think that she's been to all of these places. " I think I have an idea of what you're saying"

"Largatha do you know why I don't want people to know my real name when I work on a job? It's because I can become someone else. Someone who isn't me." Hiccup put his hand on Largeatha back. "You don't know who gave you those Tattoos on your back and for whatever reason you have the luxury of not knowing." Hiccup started to take off parts of his left shoulder armor to reveal skin Largeatha looked as he did it, hearing him say this made a lot of things go through her head. Once his bear arm was revealed she was shocked his arm was completely scarred. But it was shocking to find that not only did it have scars but it also had a beautiful tattoo of a dragon that she did not recognize With its two horns chained.

"Your tattoo it's of a Dragon. But why is it chained?"

"Largatha before I was a mercenary I had to do some things that I was not proud of things that were horrible and the leader of the man who made me do those things forced me to mark myself with this tattoo. If I could forget all about it I would but I can't" Hiccup then showed her all the scars on his arm somewhere deep somewhere debits and others looked like they had been done from horrible horrible deeds. "my scars, I remember them all who gave them to me and how I got them."

Largatha looked down at all the scars. She wondered how many of them are from humans. She wanted to touch them but she was afraid to ask "why are you telling me this"

"Largatha you have what most people will never get. A second chance to start over. A new life."

"Does this mean that you'll stop helping me?

"No, in fact, the opposite I'm asking you to join our family."

those words rang in her head and it took her a few seconds for her to register what had just been said, family. She would have a family "You mean I can stay...with you"

Hiccup leaned in his chair and knocked on the door to her room and then came Heather. " all of us talked about you joining us and Heather has decided if you accept she will take you as her daughter. This means that she will adopt you.

"Will she be my mom?"

"If that is what you want." Hiccup said before leaving

Heather came in and sat on the bed.

Largeatha looked at her not saying a word. Too scared to speak.

"Did Hiccup explain to you everything?" Heather asked still keeping Largeatha at arm's length to not make her feel trapped.

Largeatha looked at her knees "he did"

"I'm very sorry...did he tell you anything else"

"He told me that you offered to...adopt me"

Heather looked at Largeatha in the eyes. While she had been with them Heather had been the one to look out for her, To care for her and to teach her about dragons. Apart of Heather had fallen in love with this girl, indeed Largeatha made Heather's motherly side come out whenever she would have a bad dream Heather would rush in and stay with her until she calmed down and whenever Largeatha wanted to go and play with the other kids she would ask Heather if it was all right.

"Yes but only if you…." Before she could finish Largeatha had Heather in a large hug. Heather was not expecting this but she did not pull away.

"Thank you," Largeatha said while hugging Heather. She then pulled away to look Heather in the eyes

Heather couldn't stop smiling a tear was coming down her face. "I want you to know that me adopting you means that I will become your mother however that can mean whatever you want it to mean," she said wiping away a tear

"Do you want to be my mom?" largatha said nervously

Heather paused before speaking "I would like nothing more than to be your mother" she said moving closer, taking Largeathas hands into her own. "But only if you want to be my daughter"

"I do, I really do!" Largeatha said crying

Heather pulled Largeatha into her chest "herl met miar" Heather said in Largeathas native language.

PRESENT

"That's kind of you to take her in like that."

"I was taken from my family and I remember what it's like not having a mother, I won't let what happen to me happen to her which is why I'm so protective of my girl."

Astrid looked at the room which held Largeatha in it.

"What does (herl met miar) mean?"

" it means to come here my little moon. In Gaelic, you call your daughters the moon"

"Wait when I went looking for you where was she during that time?"

Astrid could hear from the other room

"I was on a mission!" Largeatha poked her head out of the room that she was in

"Hey what did I say about Eavesdropping," Heather said throwing a shoe at the wall

Largeatha ducked back into her room laughing.

"Much to my protest Ragnar ordered Largeatha to go on her first solo job. The bog burglar tribe needed help and we all agreed that it would be a good first job"

"Where the hell is your boss anyways "

"Eret needed to talk to him about our reinforcements."

"What reinforcements"

"The rest of the dragon guild syndicate is here"

"Really! Where."

"They're camped outside of the village. Ragnar will go and talk to them and then meet with your chief to tell him that officers have arrived."

As Hiccup stepped out of the house to speak with Eret he was greeted by toothless and a barrage of licks

"Come on toothless you know this doesn't wash out."

As Hiccup, Eret and toothless sat down on the porch. Hiccup had instructed Eret to find out about his family as well as take care of the dragons and keep enemy spy's away.

"What's there to report," Hiccup said looking at the sunrise

"The spy's that I hunted down 2 weeks ago off the coast of here were traced back to a large raiding party gathering off the sullen sea"

"Did you do any recon on how many there were"

"I could not get close enough to see how many troops there where but judging by how many ships that where gathered I would say 1200. On the bright side I did not see any dragon riders."

"We are still outnumbered though"

"We can win,

"Ya we can With heavy casualties, that does not sit right with me."

"What do you suggest "

"That we strike first. Raid there fleet before they can raid us."

"Not bad,We will lose our defensive positions though. We would also have to fight on where their numbers will come into play."

"We take a portion of the fleet and attack. Then we retreat and lead there fleet right into an ambush at a nearby island."

"I suggest that we recruit dragons to pull the boats and Make them faster."

"Just because we have the alpha does not mean we use it"

"It would give us the edge that we need"

"I dont want to put the dragons in harms way"

"The wont be. They will only push the boat "

Hiccup didnt like it boat new that it he should at least consider it

"Did you find out about what i asked?"

Eret turned to Hiccup "i did" Eret gestured to Hiccup to fallow

As they walked throw the village that was still waking up Eret brought Hiccup to a statue in the corner of the village.

Hiccup approached it and looked at the statue. Then looked down to see righting in stone "the great Stoick the vast one of berks greatest chiefs may you find peace in Valhalla."

"Is this?" Hiccup asked nervously looking up at the statue

"I asked around if they knew about a warrior named Stoick and they pointed me here. I then asked what happen and the strays are exactly the same"

Hiccup heard what Eret said but was still staring up at the statue. He never met his father and yet this statue was the closest thing he had. He put on his mask to not show emotion and Eret new that he wanted to be alone.

After Eret gave Hiccup some space Hiccup just stood looking at the statue.

He eventually said, "hey dad" in an awkward voice "I know if you saw me today then you outdo be ashamed of me but I'm trying to make amends" Hiccup gesturing to toothless to come closer. "I have avenged you father," Hiccup said pulling out the same small short sword that he used to kill drago " your people came to me, I won't let them or you down. Once my job is complete then I will go...be gone so I don't disgrace your memory anymore." Hiccup took the short sword and put it on an altar under stoiks statue.

"Boss I'm going to tell cami and the other wingmaidens to get ready then I will tell the chief that we need to talk."

Hiccup knew that it was only a statue but he just wanted to stand and look at it. He could see why drago could think that he could be judge and great. Even if it only was a statue this man was massive. After a while Hiccup sat next to the statue just talking to it, telling his father all the crazy adventures he has been on or all the places he has been to.

After a while, people started to notice Dragos champion talking to stoiks statue and if they didn't find it weird they found it offensive. How dare Dragos champion desecrate Stoicks monument by sitting by it.

A large Viking approached Hiccup as he sat next to the statue. The man was older and had a very long mustache. He was missing a leg and a hand but still managed to come off as menacing. When the man approached Hiccup arose to meet the man.

"You and your dragon best just get up and go now." The man said ina determined voice.

"Didn't catch your name?" Hiccup said in a sarcastic voice

"The names gobber and I suggest you leave before I make you," gobber said angrier

"Please forgive me I'm not from around here, I just wanted to pay my respects to an…" Hiccup that about what he would say "old friend"

"How dare you! Now you're going to pay"

Every fiber in gobbers body filled with rage. This man, this monster had no right to even speak his name! Yet he had the nerve to call him his friend. In Stoick's memory, he could not let this go unanswered.

Gobber undid his fake hand and attached a hammer to it and Hiccup new that he was getting red to fight. Hiccup ordered toothless to get in the air so that he does not interfere or get hurt, Hiccup took out his flaming sword and ignited it and gobber was taken aback by it

"You cared for him," Hiccup said in a humble voice

"Eye, I cared for him, and that is why you will die"

"I'm sorry that he is gone," Hiccup said as they both got into position.

"Your sorry!" Gobber said half laughing "there dead, they're all dead because of drago and his men...especially men like you. I can't even begin to think about who you had to kill to get that title."

"No...you can't" Hiccup looked at the man in front of him he then turned to see that a crowd had gathered to watch what would happen.

"Now in front of the gods, I take my revenge on you… for Stoick and for Hiccup"

Hiccup heard his name and winced at the sound. This man knew me. Before I was the champion. Then he shall be the one to do it

"Will my death bring you peace" Hiccup looked at the man, he was in pain tormented by drago. He could offer this one thing.

"What did you say?" Gobber said angrily

Hiccup dropped his sword and took off his helmet and approached gobber

"Will you be at peace with my death?"

"Your death is the only thing that can bring any of us peace"

Hiccup got on his knees "then gobber do what you must to find peace and I will welcome the Valkyries"

Gobber thought about what kind of tricks he was playing but realized he was serious. Gobber went behind Hiccup/Ragnar and raised his hammer

Hiccup knew what was coming and closed his eyes. He was ready. he was going to see all of them. He was going to see her.

As gobber said "any last words"

Hiccup only said one thing "Nadia"

As the hammer came crashing down Hiccup suddenly Heard the sound of metal and Hiccup opened his eyes to see Eret and 4 wing maidens standing in front of him in a protective circle against the crowd.

Hiccup turned to see gobber and a girl fight while other wing maidens formed a circle around him

Hiccup still sat on the ground. More village soldiers arrived and the wingmaidens and Eret grabbed Hiccup and flew out of there

As Hiccup was being carried by two girls he didn't say a word. He just looked at berk. He was so close to the end . Why couldn't they have just let him go?

As they landed at the wingmaidens camp sight a familiar face came out and hugged him.

"Turns out you needed an army" cami said hugging him

Cami can you and the wing maidens give us a minute

"Uh sure" camicazi and the other wingmaidens left the to alone

What the hell happened" Eret said raising his shoulders.

"I don't know," he said

"It looked like you were about to let your head get bashed in"

I just...found peace for a second."

"Dammit Hiccup," Eret said throwing his hands in the air and turning around. "I thought that you were good. That you didn't need use to make sure you didn't do something like that"

What do you want me to say! That I'm sorry for wanting the voices and the screams to stop! That i dont think about it or about her" Hiccup said with tears coming down his face.

"Hiccup I didn't mean"

The man back there knew my father and he knew me before i became the champion. He wanted to avenge me and my father and so I let him."

"Sorry to interrupt but shouldn't we get Heather?" Cami said walking over to them

"Oh shit," Eret said getting back on bone crusher


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

After the incident, the Chief Learned what happens and was furious at Gobber for trying to kill them.

"You idiot," he said throwing a mug at Gobbers head

"Sir ey was at Stoick's statue," Gobber said in trying to get over the fact that he had a mug thrown at him.

"So you tried to kill him. What is wrong with you! Do you know what you have just done"

"He wanted me to kill him Spitelout"

"And if you had then the others would have burned us to the ground. At least now we may be able to ask for forgiveness." Spitelout said pacing around the hall

"Sir when the dragon riders came and rescued there leader the left behind the one they call Heather." Said one of his advisers.

Then we will go to her and ask her for forgiveness." Spitelout ordered marching out of the great hall.

Heather, Astrid, and Largeatha still remained in the house while all this happened. Now that they had spent more time together they had realized that they all like each other a lot, though Astrid still was a bit nervous of the Dragos champion When Largeatha asked Heather to braid her hair Astrid asked if she could trie.

"And...done. How is it?" Astrid said twisting the last braid

" wow its so good! where did you learn to do this kind of braid" Largeatha asked feeling it.

"On Berk, girls braid their hair in all sorts of very good at it.

"Mom how does it look," she said showing it to Heather

It looks really nice" Heather said writing some stuff on some papers only giving it a glance.

Largeatha saw that she didn't pay attention, she knew how to get it though.

"Thank you so much, Astrid, I'm going to get so many souters with this"

As she heard this Heather accidentally broke the point of her pencil. She turned around to see Largeatha giggling and she realized that she had been messed with.

"Come here you little," Heather said getting up and grabbing Largeatha bringing her close and sitting down with her

"How old were you when you were aloud to look for a boyfriend," Largeatha said with her mom's arms wrapped around her. as she said this it made heather think. Heather was a slave girl. She was not really sure when you would be allowed to date other men. For most of her life, she had no rights at all. Thankfully Astrid came to her aid.

"Most girls here start dating when there 13, that's when I did," Astrid said looking at the girl sitting on the ground with her mother's arms wrapped around her

"I don't think you're ready for it just yet Largeatha," Heather said resting her head on her daughter's shoulder

Suddenly a loud knocking was heard from outside and quickly Heather grabbed her ax and Largeatha grabbed her weapons.

"Largeatha stay back," Heather said as Heather moved to see who was nocking.

Largeatha put on her mask and armor and Astrid went with Heather to see who was nocking.

When they opened the door they found a group of Vikings standing in front of them. They had weapons and armor on.

"Generals our Chief needs to have a word with you two," said one of the Vikings in the front.

"Ok give us a minute to collect our things"

As Heather shut the door Heather walked to Largeatha

And spoke in a different language

"Something has happened, I don't know what but you need to get out off here"

"What do you mean," Largeatha said in a concerned voice

"Those men out there where armed and will escort us out of here. I will distract them while you go and escape."

Largetha turned before looking at her mom definitely"I'm not leaving you"

"No your not, you're completing your mission. Escape and get help. Do you think you can do this?" Heather said with Largeatha looking up at her

"I… I can do it." She said with a tear coming down her face

Get to you dragons and go I will hold them off. Go and look for the Wingmaidens. They should be near here. Go now out the back."

As Largeatha walked into the backroom, Heather came to Astrid.

"So what do you think your Chief wants?" Heather said putting on her armor

"I don't know" probably wants to talk about that army you invited here

Heather began putting on some of her gear and packed some of her weapons but new she didn't stand a chance again all those soldiers out there, all she could do was try to distract them long enough for her daughter to escape"Well let's hope that's all"

As they walked out of the house the men started to escort them to the great hall. When they were walking the men were surrounding them which Heather noticed. She also notices that one of the escorts had whispered into Astrid's ear conveniently once they were in a busier area and it was harder to hear.

"Is there a reason you guys are armed?" Heather said to one of the leaders

"There has been an incident." Chief needs to see you.

"I see" as Heather said this she took her ax and grabbed Astrid, holding the blade to her neck

"Heather what the hell are you doing!" Astrid yelled

"Nothing personal Astrid but I have a feeling you're walking me into a trap"

"What the hell are you talking about," she said as Heather pulled her back trying to act as though she knew nothing about where she was leading heather. All of the men who were escorting her had their weapons out and somewhere sounding the alarm.

"You people really need to work on not giving away your ambushes"

"Heather, you can't escape thinking about what you're doing," Astrid said trying to negotiate with her

"Ya, I know." She then looked at the leader of the escort " what was the incident that happened?"

The man paused before speaking. " Ragnar was attacked"

"Is that so, well then I guess my instincts were right." heathers tone was cocky but inside she was more nervous then she had been in a while and feard for Hiccup

"More and more men and women showed up and Heather was outnumbered severely.

She kept looking up to the sky to check and see if Largeatha had made it. Eventually, she heard earthquakes call and she new Largeatha had escaped.

Heather looked at all of the Vikings who were about to attack her and she new Largeatha was safe. There was no point in fighting.

Heather dropped her ax and Astrid grabbed Heather's arm forcing Heather to the ground.

As they tied a rope around her arms she instructed the men to take her to the Chief while she went back to the house to look for the girl.

As she entered the house she found no sign of the girl. Apparently Largeatha had escaped out the back and she realized that Heather was distracting them all so she could get away.

As she ran back to the great hall she saw Heather in front of the chief. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

"You fools i told you to bring them her not tie her up and drag her here!" He said yelling at the guards.

Astrid approached the Chief "sir I was with her when it happened. She attacked us"

"You stupid girl!" Of course, she would attack you we attacked them!" He yelled putting his hands on his face

"Is that why you called me here. To tell me you tried to kill Ragnar?" heather said with a scornful look

"No no no I wanted you here to ask you If you would talk to them about not taking revenge"

"Really you tie me up to drag me here and expect me to ask Ragnar for forgiveness," she said still on her knees

"It was a miss understanding, any punishment you or he thinks is appropriate for the people involved will be done"

"But sir that's…" before Astrid could finish her sentence Spitelout had slapped her sideways.

"Silence you Stupid girl, can't you see I'm trying to save our village!" Everyone in the hall was stunned no one could think that Spitelout would attack the commander

"You would be lucky if all he did was leave," Heather said looking down at the floor

Spitelout turned and came to her "what is the worst thing?"

Heather raised her head before speaking "If he hasn't ordered an army of dragons, mercenary's, bounty hunters, and assassins to come and rescue me it is probably what he is doing right now." heather said trying to intimidate the Vikings

Before the chief could speak the entrance to the great hall was smashed through. Eret and Largeatha along with 50 Wingmaidens came in and surrounded Heather.

Largeatha came and untied Heather while the rest of the Wingmaidens protected them.

"Don't attack! Where not your enemy" Spitelout said running to them

Once they got Heather untied they started to retreat but before they could Hiccup landed behind them along with the rest of the Wingmaidens.

He walked in past the others strait to the Chief.

Once he reached him he pulled out a map and unrolled it. "Right here is a large fleet gathering to attack you. We have been killing their scouts but there going to come."

Hiccup began to walk away when Spitelout spoke

"Where are you going"

"I'm done, you people can fend for your selves," he said leaving the great hall

After they had retreated back to the forest the group stopped to gather themselves but Hiccup didn't stay to talk. him and toothless went off and sat under a tree while Eret told Heather what happened.

"He what!" Heather said grabbing her side

"I don't want to jump to conclusions but what I saw was him letting the man almost kill him."

Heather looked to where hiccup had walked to "Hiccup wouldn't do that He's better now"

"When I confronted him about it he said, 'what do you want me to say that I'm sorry, that I want the screams to stop or that I don't miss her."

Heather looked over to where Hiccup was sitting "he was doing a lot better, and then you showed him his dead father's statue."

"I didn't think he would want to kill himself because of it," Eret said pointing to Hiccup.

"I will go and talk to him," Heather said walking away

As Hiccup was sitting by the tree toothless head was resting on his lap. Heather came by and sat next to him and Hiccup knew that she would want to talk about what happened

"Hey Hiccup"she said sitting next to him

"A take it he told you"

"He did, why did you do it in thought we were past that"

"At that moment I was at peace, everyone...everything had happened and if I died then finally I could rest"

Is that what you think would happen? You would just die and there would be peace. No Hiccup you can't die. Eret needs you, Largeatha needs you toothless needs you the world needs you… I need you" Heather sobbed

"I sorry that you can't understand why I don't want to feel pain"

"Your not the only one to feel pain asshole"

"I guess I'm not as strong as you then, call me selfish or a coward for not wanting pain."

And do you think Nadia would want you to kill your self!" Heather had gotten up and was facing Hiccup " she was my friend too, do you think that she wanted you to die?"

"Nadia is dead! They're all dead! My mother! My father! I can't find happiness. Everyone I love is dead!" Hiccup had gotten up and met Heather face to face.

Heather saw the pain in his eyes. All Hiccup wanted to do was be free but he didn't know-how.

Later that day

Berk was busy with the news that raiders where gathering and Astrid being Berks commander wasted no time setting up defenses around Berk.

She ordered catapults to be built and more guards where to be posted.

Days later

A few days had passed and the dragon riders had not left. The chief would not dare try to kick them off but he did have his Vikings keep an eye on them.

"Hiccup what are we still doing here I thought you said you done with Berk," Eret said walking into Hiccups tent with him.

"You all can go I'm just enjoying the scenery," he said sitting on his mat

Hiccup whether you like it or not me and Heather are not leaving you"

"Well you should I'm probably going to get you all killed anyways"

Eret moved at this callous answer "Hiccup I know you're having a ruff time but I promise things will get better"

Hiccup looked up and then ent back to staring at the top of his tent "That's what Valhalla is for"

Eret walked out of his tent and was met by Heather and cami

"So how did it go?" Cami asked

"Not great, I have not seen him like this in years"

"Heather, do you want to go in and try? Eret asked

"If he won't leave that's fine me and Largeatha will make camp," Heather said stubbornly.

"I will go and tell the Wingmaidens to start and forage nearby," said camicazi

"Cami I don't think you or the Wingmaidens need to stay any longer"

"Please the Wingmaidens would die for Hiccup and so would i. We are not going to leave a friend in need." camicazi said firmly

"Speaking of friends can you look after Largeatha while I set up some stuff," Heather asked cami

"Of course but you know that she is not a child right she can take care of her self"cami replyed

"I know but I worry"

"It's ok to worry but you won't be there to protect her all the time."

She's just so daring it's like she has no fear." Heather looked at where Largeatha was sitting, she and a couple of Wingmaidens were sparing and Heather eased knowing strong women were protecting her baby girl

Neither did we when we were her age. While you work I will send her off with some of the girls to hunt. That should keep her distracted

Astrid and the other council members met to discuss the attack that would come. The room was full of people trying to get there points across

"Ragnar said that they were gathering near the sullen sea. If we are to survive then we must attack now!" Yelled a council member

"We can't leave Berk undefended, and what if we're wrong then we would have sailed all the way there for nothing!" Astrid commanded

"What about the mercenaries on the island? As soon as we leave they could attack!" Yelled another member

"ya, why have they not left?" Yelled someone from the crowd

Spitelout raised his hand "our scouts have reported that they are setting up camp, they appear to be forging for food"

"We have an enemy army coming at us and potentially one at our doorstep. I think its time that we consider finding a new home" said a council member

"What! Abandon Berk, you'd have use run like cowards then stay and fight for our homes!" Astrid was angry she was taught to never retreat from battle even if it meant death.

"No one wants to run but if we are to survive then we must consider moving on." Said a member

The debate went on for hours with no conclusion only angry yells and talks of leaving.

"Cowards all of them!" Astrid yells walking into her house

"Astrid, we can't win that's all we're saying," Fishlegs said nervously

Astrid looked at Fishlegs and realized that he was terrified. "Sorry Fishlegs I don't mean to call you coward"

"We all have our strengths and weaknesses yours is being a warrior and a great general mine is teaching the children of Berk"

"But in times of war, we all must pick up a sword"

"We got lucky. We never get warning of an attack until its too late." Fishlegs said sitting down

"Ya, then they went and abandoned us."

"I mean Gobber did attack there leader, he had every right to"

"You half to admit Gobber had every right to be angry. To dee Dragos champion at Stoick's statue must have been infuriating"

"Weirdest thing is I talked to some of the villagers who saw what happened and there seems to be a general consensus that Ragnar let Gobber try to kill him"

"Oh please, Gobber could take any one of them down, he is the best Viking in the village. I'm sure he one out of skill" Astrid said

"No actually the people who I talked to said that Ragnar went down without a fight."

"And why would he do that"

"I don't know."

Fishlegs stayed for dinner and then went to his house.

The next day

_**Flashback**_

"And there it is," Hiccup said landing toothless with Nadia behind him.

"Hiccup it's gigantic, do we need this much space?" Nadia said looking around

"No but I think it's better to have space and not need it than to need the space and not have it," he said putting his arm around her waist

"I love your simple logic Hiccup," she said grabbing his neck

"Look overhear we can put a house and over there toothless and the other dragons can live here, oh and over here is where we can farm!" He said pointing all over

Nadia looked into his eyes "Hiccup and Nadia the farmers"

"Nadia all I want to do is to settle down here with you and raise a family. My time with the syndicate is coming to an end"

"Well then where should we start first. I think, hmm the house and once that's built maybe a place for a baby" she said playfully

_**Present**_

"Where the fuck is he" Heather yelled spitting out water

"I searched his tent and the boar pit. No sign of him." She said standing at attention

"Dammit, go and get your women and find him now!" Heather commanded

"Maam toothless is freaking out that he can't find Hiccup and his armor still here," said one of the Wingmaidens

Back on Berk Hiccup sat slouched over a table. He wore a hood over his head and no one there recognized him

"Can I get another" Hiccup said holding up a large mug

"You going to pay for the other four you drank?" She said filling up his mug

Hiccup pulled out a bag of coin and handed them to the girl "just keep-em coming"

"You got it pall"

Suddenly a larger man came in "hey Reia, get me a drink"

"Sure thing Snotlout," said Reia

As snot lout looked around he noticed a new person sitting alone. Snotlout was curious and after a hard days work decided to blow off steam at the tavern.

Hiccup looked and saw Snotlout "oh great this guy" he murmured to himself turning back around. Hiccup remembered that he was the Chief's son and was a skilled warrior but was not exactly the sharpest ax in the cache and Hiccup and little to no contact with him regarding training or other important stuff. He did notice that Snotlout was third in command but Spitelout never gave his son any real assignments

As Snotlout walked over and grabbed the mead that Reia made for him he notices the man in the hood. "Who's the new guy?"

Reia just shook her head walking away and Snotlout slowly sat next to the mystery man. "So what's your deal because I have never seen you here before"

Hiccup turned to look at Snotlout and in an instant, his face turned to fear "you ...your not supposed to"

Hiccup held up his hand "oh easy there I'm not here to hurt you I'm just here for a drink"

Snotlout looked at Hiccup wary but soon relaxed. "Can't blame you for coming back. This place has the best mead in the archipelagos"

Hiccup chuckled at this "it's not bad"

"Reia two more over here please," Snotlout said raising his hand.

"You don't need to get me one"

"Those are for me, it takes a few to get this boat going"

Hiccup was amused by this and decided to engage with the man "Two for me," he said raising his hand

Hering this it got snotlout intrigued enough to ask Ragnar questions and prob the man about why he left and why other things that needed answers"What's your deal man how come you left?"

Didn't they tell him hiccup thought to himself, after all, he was the chief's son."They didn't tell you?"

"Na they got me on a need to know bases on most stuff and right now they said all I need to know is that you left and that you ain't coming back and that something happened"

"The reason I left is that I went to Stoick's statue to pay my respects and a large one leg one-handed Viking attacked me," Hiccup said receiving his drinks

"Hmm why would you visit his statue, isn't he one of your former enemies.?"

Hiccup remembered that he had to be careful. No one could no Hiccups relationship to the dead chief. "Warriors can respect one and other even if there enemies"

This made sense to snotlout being a warrior and one who idealized stoick for the warrior he was "I can understand that but still doesn't explain why you visited his statue."

How did hiccup explain that he knows stoick, or that he was his son? Mabey it was better just be "Let's just say me and Stoick are old friends."

"Uh, Friends don't attack each other."

"Friends one day enemy's the next, I just wanted to say goodby to him properly"

"Its no surprise Gobber was the one who took offense to you being there, after what drago did Berk was never the same"

"I wouldn't know I wasn't there," Hiccup said drinking the last of his mead

"Drago not only murdered our chief but took his son. We never heard what happened to him after that. Gobber blames himself, he was there trying to stop drago.

This filled in a lot of the peises for hiccup but did not make him feel better "So that's why he hates me"

"He hates anyone associated with drago… we all do. After the attack, we learned Berk lost 80% of its army and half its population. It's taken us twenty years to get back to a fraction of what we once were."

Though he felt bad for what happened to his home the past was the past and he could not change Dragos rath on his village"You all seem to be doing better now"

"Thanks to the commander,"snotlout said knowing that they could thank only one person for there survival

"Astrid right"

"We would have been wiped out long ago if it weren't for her"

"Where is she now?" He asked getting another drink

"Ever since you left she has been working none stop to get this place ready for the attack that you warned us of. Our Chief had to order her to get some sleep so I'm on watch"

"Shouldn't you be out there?"

"If they see ships they will sound the horn and I will get there as soon as possible?"

Snotlout was lucky that Hiccup had quit or else he would have made an example of him. "You should probably get there now," he said calmly.

"Sure it just gets so boring, perhaps if Reia got us some of these to go then will you join me?

Hiccup was surprised by but for once had nothing better to do and didn't care what happened "Reia four for me and my friend here"

"Sure thing," she said smiling happily

At the docks, Hiccup, and Snotlout drank and discussed stupid things

"No, you didn't" Hiccup said laughing

"Yep, the first week of dragon training good old commander hit me over the head with a hammer, all because I asked her out," snotlout said trying to contain his laughter.

Snotlout lucked up at the sky " I'm sorry that Gobber attacked you but we can't do this by ourselves selves" he said in a pleading deminer "what will it take for you to come back?"

"Listen, my friend, I like you but I don't think I can come back"

"Please my father is tired and is getting weaker each year and I worry I must take up the mantle in his stead," he said pleading

This surprised hiccup, this man seemed confident in the way he acted but now he seemed like he was unsure "Worried? You don't think you do good?"

"No, I don't. I'm not a leader I'm a warrior, fighting on the frontlines and going on quests is what I'm good at but redistribution of food or maintaining houses, I can't do that it's not who I am, it never was."

. " knowing your limitations is the sign of great leader"

"But you don't lose those limitations," he said sadly as he drank more mead

"If you don't take up the mantle then who will?" hiccup asked interestedly

"There is talk about making the commander the next Chief"

That was not uncommon if there was not someone of the bloodline fit to take up the mantle as a leader then "What do you think about that?"

Snotlout had only good things to say about the Astrid, she was fearless and had the courage that most men did not poses, but what most people found when around her was not her scary nature or her hard-headedness, no what most people notice how much of a born leader she was, how kind she was, how good she was "I think that she is the best person to lead us, she has put many hours in to rebuilding berk and bringing it back to the days it once was. I can think of no one better to be chief of berk"

"I have only known her for a short while, she seems like a capable commander"

"She hates your guts you know?"

"I get that vibe" Hiccup said smiling

"Can I ask you something?" Snotlout said nervously

"I can't promise that I will answer"

"Drago took Hiccup from his home. Most of Berk thinks drago sacrificed him to the gods or killed him but I don't, I think that my cousin is alive. My father tells me to stop wishing for things that will only bring me disappointments but as Dragos champion, you must know something"

Hiccups back were turned so Snotlout couldnt see his face. The face of fear. His family, his blood, his people weren't dead. But Snotlout could never know the truth. "I'm sorry but...he's dead"

Snotlouts heart sank, in that moment every his cousin was dead officially"Oh...apart of my new the truth but...well I guess I shouldn't have held out hope"

"I put a sword next to Stoicks statue...it belonged to him"

The sadness n snot lout quickly diminished as he heard that his cousin was not sacrificed or killed immediately. Rather he had a life!"You mean he lived, tell me what he was like!"

"I..he.." hiccup he said moving away

"Please, You knew him, I need to know what he was like "

Hiccup turned and ran away. He ran past Snotlout who begged him to stay but Hiccup couldn't. He ran and jumped over a wall and past the forest trees, back to the camp and to the tent that seemed so small and so big at the same time.

With his head between his legs, he covered his ears trying not to let the thoughts in his head.

"Hiccup where the hell have you been?" Heather said walking in

Hiccup said nothing only shaking and breathing heavily.

"Get out, get out, get out!"Hiccup yelled. His hands to his head and his knees to his chest

"Heather backed up as Hiccup looked up with tears coming out of his eyes.

"Hey, what's wrong?"Heather said moving to his side

"I said get out!"


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

"Ships on the horizon!" Yelled a guard

"Sound the alarm, get the people in the great hall and fine the commander!" Yelled Snotlout as he grabbed his sword and shield and put on a helmet

Snotlout oversaw the guard at the dock when he saw ships on the horizon. Snotlout ordered the guards to board the ships to meet them on the sea. This was common practice as the guard numbered only 200 and would have to buy time for the rest of Berk to get ready and mobilize.

"Men to the ships. We most by the commander more time to mobilize the main force and hide our people."

Without hesitation, the warriors at the dock ran to the boats and boarded noting that this fight might be a lost cause.

"Sir remember we don't know if their enemy's or not," said a guard

"ya well I'd rather not find out with them on our shores," he said putting on a helmet and some light armor

As they sailed out at full speed they saw the flags of the opposite ships. They were purple with except one ship that had a purple moon on a wight flag

"Have you seen them before?" Asked an officer on Snotlouts flagship

"No. Which is why we interact peacefully, we don't want to start a war."

"They look pretty well-armed," said another officer

"So do we"

As they got within distance of the other ships Snotlout moved his ship out leaving the rest of the fleet back as was customary to do at the beginning of the battle and the other side followed suit

"Do you speak for your people?" asked the large man from the other side

"Yes, I'm commander Jorgensen. Why have you come here?" Snotlout asked

No response came for a minute. Then a person 18 at most stepped out. Her hair was long and she was wearing armor, unlike anything the Vikings had seen before. As the ships moved to the side of each other they finally saw each other more clearly.

"Why have you come here?" Snotlout asked with suspicion. He knew that if these people were here to fight then they could overrun Berk. He looked over to the enemy fleet and saw the massive amount of ships. There was no way they could defeat them on land. Forcing them to use their boats was the best way. "We don't want trouble. If you have come to trade then please we would love to have you"

Suddenly the girl Begin a war cry and the others soon followed. She soon took a spear and throw it and at Snotlout ship hitting a soldier on the left.

"Shields!" Snotlout said getting behind the wall as his ship began to retreat to his fleet

—-

In his tent Hiccup was pacing around trying to decide what to do about this new information. "What do I do. Oh Thor give me a sign"

"You don't need a sign for that"

As though lighting had hit him through the Heart Hiccup turned around slowly, his breath shaky and his eyes in tears. "...N..nadia," he said sobbing

"Hello my love"

Nadia was standing at the entrance. Her black hair and slim figure in full view as the candles made her shape look clear as day. It was unmistakable. It was Nadia

Hiccup looked at her, he could have collapsed...But then realized what was happening. "Your not real...your...not...your" Hiccup struggled to find the words.

Nadia began walking towards him"What are you doing Hiccup" she said in her slight Russ accent

"Stop it your not really your just my head playing tricks," he said turning not being able to stand the sight of his dead wife

Suddenly he felt a sharp pain on his back and turned to see an apple on the floor. "Ow, dammit did you just throw this at me!"

"Damn right I did"

Nadia moved in until she was close to him "You should be down there"

"Oh, what difference does it make!" He yelled angrily "the think I'm dead"

"And who's fault is that"

Hiccup paused knowing the answer "mine"

"Wrong, It's not your fault, its Dragos, stop blaming your self for his crimes"

"I can't!"

"That's not the man I fell in love with"

"I'm a coward OK I'm sorry if I can't take on the pain of losing you."

"Look at me!" she said louder grabbing his face forcing him to look into her eyes

"The man I fell in love with was a great man. He fought for good causes and never charge a penny. He frees slaves and gives them money from his own pocket. You saved me and countless others from a life that most can't think of and we all are eternally grateful. Your still that man...your still my Hiccup"

"I let you die Nadia, I'll never forgive myself for that I just...I can't if any of them found out Who I was and what I had become do you think that they would accept me? do you think that they would understand the things that I've done, the crimes that I've committed?"

"Hiccup is dead to Berk, this is true. So let his memory be the one I know, The one of a great man. You said it your self he lived longer than a baby"

"It's too late, I left "

"oh please, it's not too late there probably under attack right now and if they are this way your chance to set things right. Stop blaming yourself it's not your fault. it's not anyone's fault except for Drago's. I love you so much dear and one day I will see you again but you must keep going" Nadia took Hiccups hands into her own before resting her forehead on his chest

"I miss you so much. I don't know how to do this without you"

Nadia pulled away and looked at him"you'll always have me Hiccup. I'll always be with you and I'll be waiting in Valhalla...but you must move on"

Hiccup fell to his knees "I don't know how"

"You know the first word. I said it once before."

Hiccup looked at the ground "I don't think I can." he said before looking back up

"Say it!" Nadia yelled

Hiccup closed his eyes struggling to find the word before finale saying it "Redemption!"

As soon as Hiccup said this he opened his eyes and Nadia had disappeared he looked around the side to side. "N...no ple..ase don't go, " he said as he curled up on the floor

Words occurred in his mind as he broke down in a sobbing cry 'I'll always be with you, my love'

Cami report"

Cami rushed over to heather who was sitting by a fire "Berk is under attack Heather, the flags flown show that they are the purple moon."

"Purple moon? That isn't who Eret saw in the sullen sea" heather said getting up and rushing towards Windshear.

As Heather got on Windshear and flew to Largeatha and Eret who were in the middle of sparing she noticed smoke coming from Berk. " dammit, Berk can't handle the purple moon"

Heather landed and got off Windshear. She then went to largeatha. " sweety where is Earthquake?"

"She is over with the other Dragons, why?" largeatha asked confused

"Berk is under attack. Keep your Dragon at the ready" she said quickly

"Okay mom," largeatha said running off

"Hella and Sigrid go with her and protect her"

The two nodded and followed

"Heather, what's happening?" Eret asked

"The purple moon is attacking," she said walking to Hiccup's tent

Eret began to walk with her trying to keep up. "I didn't see them in the sullen sea. Berk can't handle the purple moon."

"We can't move without his word you know that," Heather said as she kept walking

They kept walking until they reached his lone tent. Then Heather entered.

Hiccup was on his bed looking at a small half-destroyed headband. Heather then sat next to him Kowing who the headband belongs to. "Im sorry"

"Ya me to"

A long pause stood before they broke the silence "The purple moon is attacking"

" Heda?" Hiccup said asking who was leading

"Not sure but most likely. Hiccup they can't handle this on there own"

"I know"

"Say the word and I will take the Wingmaidens out," heather said determined

"No"

"But…"

"We go together. Get me my armor" with a smile heather helped her friend up

Hiccup and heather put their armor on and went to the Dragons.

"Toothless!" Hiccup called. out of know where toothless from a giant tree came crashing down on top of Hiccup.

"He has been worried sick about you," Heather said

"Hey bud sorry about scaring you," he said under a barrage of licks.

"I will go tell the Wingmaidens to form up." heather said running off

"Im sorry bud… about everything but I swear to you I will make it up to you but right now I need the alpha" Hiccup said looking seep into toothless eyes

With a pause toothless looked back into Hiccup's green eyes before re-tackling him to the ground in a show of support.

Ok, toothless let's save Berk.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

Snotlout p.o.v

"Form the line!" I yelled as I slashed at a charging warrior. He came at me with a berserker rage I had never seen before, it's like he had no regard for his life.

"Sir they're coming back for another attack!" He said to me as we tried to reform the lines. Ship-to-ship fighting was very hard, especially on these Rocky Seas.

The conventional tactic was to have your boat lineup as thick as you can and tie them together with a rope making one large flotilla and then your warriors could move around on the ships freely and reinforce other parts of the ships when needed. The only problem with this was if the enemy were to cut the ropes holding the ships, your ships may be cut off from the other half. We had our town behind us and an enemy force much larger than us in front, so all we could do was toss ropes to each other and make a large line to even the fight.

As our warriors kicked off the dead that we had slain from the previous wave of soldiers that had attacked us, they came back again with more ferocity, this time yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs. They were banging on their shields with their swords and axes, a truly terrifying sight. We were really unsettled by the fact that though they had maintained losses during the initial wave of attacks, it had not seemed to faze them at all.

"Brace for another attack" I yelled as I held up my splintered shield.

"Where the hell is the commander?" yelled one of my Lieutenants standing at my side.

Astrid's pov

"Women and children and non-combative! We need to get them to safety!" I yelled to a warrior, attempting to get people to safety. As soon as the alarm was raised I immediately jumped into action. Unfortunately, I was in no position to do anything—I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The chief had decided to talk to me about the incident regarding the mercenaries and when the alarm came off I hadn't heard it. With everyone rushing around me, I was distracted and it took me a second to catch on. I quickly gathered myself and sprung into action.

"Warriors will meet me at the docks! We need to reinforce the guards who are probably engaged with the enemy," I yelled to an officer as he ran off to gather more troops.

I ran home to get my armor and my ax and other weapons I would need to fight. If only we had more time to prepare. As I entered my house I saw my mother Olga getting the straps ready to help me get my armor on. She was a big help like that.

This was my light armor which protected my shoulders with metal plates. I also added a leather waist protector and chest pad. I had a metal headband for the occasion and I quickly put it on. Once I got my battle armor on my mom looked at me as I held my ax in my hand. I was about to go off to war.

Before I left, my mom grabbed my hand and looked into my eyes. "Your father would be so proud of you," she said to me with a tear dropping from her eye. "Now go and protect your people!" I could see the pride and the worry in my mother's face. I gave her one last hug before running off to battle.

I never knew my father, he died defending Berk when Drago attacked and this is probably one of the biggest reasons why I hate anyone who has to do with Drago. My father was commander of the guards that night during the attack by Drago. My father fought valiantly against him. But in the end, and by Drago's own hand, he killed my father.

A part of me will never know the true extent to which my father fought to defend the village, but one of the warriors there who fought alongside him claimed that was the most fierce of anyone there, that he struck down more than 40 men before he took ten arrows to his chest and even then he was able to strike down 10 more. It was only when Drago came and drove his sword into him that my father finally died.

As I made my way to the docks where the enemy would come from, I found the rest of Berk's warriors lined up in a defensive formation. The docks were the only way to attack Berk without landing somewhere else and defensively it was a good place to hold them. Entrances to Berk led from the docks and there were high points where my archers would be able to shoot down on them. The docks were narrow so they couldn't really accommodate the number of warriors when they arrived. Our terrain denied our enemy the use of their large forces to outflank us unless we could be pushed back to the village. My strategy has been for a long time to hold them at the docks and force as much damage while they advance, during which I have Berk retreat in case we lose and they take the village, I don't want them there. We had catapults and Balistes, mostly for dragon raids, but the mercenaries showed us how to use them for other purposes.

Once I gave the signal, all entrances to Berk were defended. The archers readied themselves and our mercenary training into action, letting loose our balistes and sending rocks soaring from our catapults.

With the sound of the horn, Snotlout's ships began to retreat. I walked with my ax in hand as well as my few warriors who would protect me in battle and bring messages to the other commanders and officers leading in places I couldn't be.

I noticed a young warrior in the back lines with a shield and spear, shaking. He looked no older than 14 and like a fishbone if I have ever seen one. He was having trouble with his shield and I quickly helped him with it. "Here, hold it like this" I said, adjusting it in his hand.

The boy looked at me as though a Valkyrie had approached him and his face lit up. I knew I had raised the morale of all my warriors and so I decided to urge them on. "Warriors of Berk!" I yelled, moving my way to the front so everyone could see me, "the hoards of Helheim are upon us. Fight to the death!"

Narrator's pov

Snotlout's ships finally made it back as he had bought Berk enough time to ready their defenses.

"Prepare for the incoming attack " Astrid yelled as Snotlout's ship entered the docks and their battered warriors exited.

"Are you okay muttonhead?" Astrid asked as snotlout approached her. His hand hung stiffly on his side.

"See I knew you cared about me," he said. He turned to face the fleet that was about to land.

Astrid only rolled her eyes and went back to the battle. "Ready shields" Astrid yelled as she grabbed her shield and joined the line. As the enemy landed on the island Berk's archers began to rain down on them.

"Launch catapults" Astrid commanded and the catapults behind the frontlines fired. Some hit the ground and others hit the water. Every now and then one would get lucky and hit a ship or a cluster of men.

As the enemy army formed upon the narrow docks and made a shield wall to protect themselves from the arrows, Astrid gave another signal and Balistes fired punching holes in the line.

"Are the wingmaidens ready to move out?" Heather asked.

"Swords, axes, shields, and spears ready" Cami replied.

Heather turned to her daughter and grabbed her shoulder lightly. "I want you to stay with me at all times ok? And do exactly what I tell you to." Heather said in a serious voice "I know mom you don't have to worry."

Heather pulled her in closer. "This is not the time for games, okay. This is serious," she said.

"I promise I will be right by your side," Largeatha said with a smile.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, okay," Heather said trying to convince her daughter that it was ok to sit the battle out.

"I want to be a warrior like you. How can I be one if I have not had the taste of battle?" Largeatha knew a battle was an ugly affair and that this was going to be something that she shouldn't take pride in, but she also knew that in order for her to become a warrior she must have experience.

As Heather and the wingmaidens moved out to join the battle that was raging Hiccup was gathering dragons. Hiccup knew Berk didn't have a lot of dragons on the island, so he had resorted to using Toothless's speed to get to the nearest island instead. He knew it had a large dragon population.

As he arrived at the closest island and had Toothless call the dragons. It took a few moments, but after a while dragons started to arrive by the dozens. There were deadly nadders and hideous zipplebacks and gronckles, monstrous nightmares came as well and even a few timber jacks came as well as wingnashers too. As they approached Hiccup and Toothless, they all bowed their head at the alpha in a show of respect. The alpha controlled the dragons and toothless had taken on this role by defeating the Red Death.

Though Hiccup didn't speak the language of the dragon, he knew they understood him to a certain degree.

"Dragons, I'm here asking for your help. I know I have no right to ask you for help, but I need you. My name is Hiccup, and like you all I have been hurt and abused by Vikings but now...I'm asking you to help me. I need your help in saving innocent women and children and people who don't deserve to die. Fight for me and for your alpha as we charge into battle. Please, I'm begging you. Like some of you Vikings have taken things from me—people I love, but even still I can't let them die. The same reason I couldn't let you all die to the Red Death."

A monstrous Nightmare looked at Toothless and then at the rest of the dragons before roaring. Soon one by one all the other dragons started roaring. Hiccup knew what it meant.

"Alright let's move out!"

"Fight! Fight for your family and friends, your homes and children, and Oden will welcome you into his great hall!" Astrid yelled as she struck down a crazed warrior with the edge of her ax.

"Commander, there are too many of them. We have to retreat," one of her officers said approaching her.

Astrid stepped away from the front lines to talk to the person who had said it. "We won't retreat until we receive the signal that Berk is clear of people!"

"If we don't retreat now we will all die," he said scared.

Astrid grabbed his shirt as the man tried to plead with her "I'd rather die bravely then live a coward!"

"Astrid, men are still coming. There are too many of them!" said Snotlout thrusting his sword in the direction of Purple Moon warrior.

"If we lose the docks then we lose Berk, and the signal has not been given that the village is clear!"

"Incoming!"

Out of nowhere, a huge flaming rock hit the back of a building on Berk.

Astrid watched as the building went down. _That was from a catapult but how could the enemy have catapults on the water?_ Astrid thought. She looked out and noticed a new ship had arrived. If you could even call it a ship. It was more like a floating island. The massive structure, which appeared to have two large catapults on it, was being escorted by five boats. It carried maybe 300 warriors, and that's not counting the ones that were in front of the ship. She could see the catapults were being reloaded.

"We must buy Berk a little more time. Catapults target the large ship!" Astrid yelled.

As the catapults fired, the ship withstood the attack only suffering damage to the deck. As the massive ship lumbered its way, the signal was finally given that Berk was clear, and Astrid gave the command to retreat while she and a small group made a rear guard. Once the rest of the warriors made their way out of the village and into the forest to the meetup point, they could figure out what to do next. As Astrid and those that were left from the rearguard made their way to the meetup point, she felt as if she had failed her people, her tribe, her friends, but most importantly her father.

As she arrived at the place deep in the woods she found the chief in a hastily set up tent. Astrid entered and was surprised to find Heather of all people there talking to the chief.

"What's going on here?" Astrid demanded.

"We have come back to help take back your village," Heather said to Astrid. She and a brown-haired woman in battle gear gestured to a map of the island.

Though Astrid was furious that they left, she was in no place to refuse their help but she was going to critique their plan if she felt it was bad.

"We don't have the warriors to take back Berk," Astrid said as she walked to the map and looked at it.

The map had a wooden game piece on it to represent the opposing forces. The chief was also looking at it carefully.

"We brought reinforcements," Heather said with a smirk.

"How many?" Astrid asked as she looked at the board pieces.

"Seventy-five, 50 warriors and 25 ready-to-go officers and commanders—" Before she could finish Heather was cut off by Astrid.

"They have over 2000 there and you think that will make a difference!" Astrid yelled as she pointed to the entrance. "With the losses we took, we will be lucky if we have 500 warriors left."

"You didn't let me finish… I was going to say we brought an army of dragons as well, but you're right, with the losses you took in the initial defense, making a full-frontal assault would result in even more casualties. Which is where my friend Camicazi here comes in."

Camicazi had long auburn hair and yellow eyes. She was also a little bit shorter than Astrid, but not by much. She was by all means beautiful.

"The first thing you need to know is who you're fighting. The Purple Moon is a group of slavers and traders who deal with all sorts of things. Their business reaches all parts of the world and they are ruthless. The only way to beat them is by killing them all and erasing all traces of this happening. Believe me, the Purple Moon can field armies much larger than this. They certainly don't like it when their raiding party gets destroyed."

"So how do we stop them from leaving?" Astrid asked.

Cami took one of the game pieces and placed it on the map where the docks were located. "We destroy their boats."

"Great, so we do something that is impossible."

"Not for me and not for dragons. If we do that then I have only one question for your chief. How much do you care about the houses of Berk?"

The chief put his hand to his chin and thought carefully before answering the question. "Before the dragon raids stopped mysteriously some time ago we would have to rebuild those houses all the time" he replied, smiling.

"Once we take out their boats and their single dreadnought we then do something that the wingmaidens are best at! Shock'n awe."

Before she could continue Ragnar walked in, accompanied by Eret and Largeatha. Ragnar was wearing all his armor. "There is some small good news," he said with a smile. "I know you suffered losses in the battle but their dreadnaughts are full of slaves without homes so I think if we steal it and free the slaves, and we offer them a place on Berk, we can get the manpower Berk desperately needs."

The chief pondered this idea. It was not a bad one or an uncommon one. People often came in seeking shelter or a new tribe, but never at the scale, he was talking about.

"I guess we have no choice but to ask them to join our tribe," Spitelout said.

"What makes you think that they will fight?" Astrid asked.

"When you have lost everything you'd _do_ anything for hope," he said, putting another piece on the board.

Astrid didn't know how to respond to this. She only looked back at the board and then at everyone else. "So when do we pull this off?"

At night while the rest of the invaders were in the village looking for things that the hooligans hadn't been able to bring with them, Heather and 20 wingmaidens made their way to the dreadnought. Windshear would have been too obvious, so the wingmaidens carried Heather there. They stayed close to the water making sure not to be spotted. Once they finally made it to the right side of the ship they began their attack. The ship was not heavily guarded. Only a dozen or so men manned the ship.

Heather knew that this attack had to be lightning-quick so they could not warn their comrades on the shore. She ordered the wingmaidens to stay at the bottom while she and two others went up to see the placement of the guards. As they looked over the edge of the ship they saw two guards walking away, two more on the other side, four more at the front and at the back. The ship was so large that if she took out one group silently then the others wouldn't hear it, hopefully.

She needs control of the horn which was being held by the group at the front of the ship. The only way to take them all out together was with arrows.

As she and two others floated her down, she told the wingmaidens, who instinctively knew what to do. They broke up into teams and on Heather's sign launched the attack.

It was over in less than four seconds. Heather and her group took out the side facing her while five warriors took out the back with arrows. Another five warriors took out the front, and the side was taken out by the other five wingmaidens.

"Collect the bodies and pile them somewhere, then prepare the ship to leave while I go check out what's down below," Heather commanded.

She and a couple of wingmaidens moved below deck. As they entered, she noticed a familiar, unmistakable odor. It was the smell of slavery, a smell she despised. Heather knew that where it lingered was also pain and suffering, rape and abuse. Even when you think you can't be broken anymore, she thought, they shatter you.

They lit a candle, and immediately Heather saw what she had feared. Men, women, children, and infants all chained to the walls. The smell was horrible, but one she was unfortunately used to. She made her way through the crowd of slaves noticing the number of young girls and boys who reminded her of herself as a child. They all looked at her, silent. She knew that look. Empty, alone, afraid, and broken.

All Heather wanted to do was release them but she knew that they were likely to run and this would alert the enemy. If she could get them to the other part of the island, she would release them as fast as she could.

"Just hold on a little bit longer, please, and you will be free. I promise," she told the crowd of heavy faces.

She returned to the deck, where the wingmaidens had gotten the boat ready to sail. It would take at least 20 people to sail this massive ship and Heather knew that.

"Are we ready?" Heather said, arriving at the helm.

"Yes ma'am," one of the wingmaidens answered.

"Give the signal and then let's get out of here!"

Hearing this, a wingmaiden lit a torch and began waving it in the air and then threw it overboard.

As they slowly moved out, the Purple Moon noticed and ran to their ships, sounding their alarms. However, there was no way a large dreadnought would outrun a regular Viking longship. Heather knew this and had counted on some of the warriors retreating to their ships to chase them down. As the enemy warships tried to get out of the port, a screaming whistle was heard. This was the sound of death.

Hiccup and Toothless hit a ship, sinking it mediately. A hundred dragons emerged from where he had dive-bombed the enemy ships. Unfortunately, Berk's ships had to be sunk as well. Know one could escape or else the Purple Moon would come and seek revenge. Like the ships, they all sank, and the warriors cried for help as the lumbering dreadnought headed off.

Once the dreadnought landed on the other side of the island, Heather was immediately greeted by Largeatha, who worried more than she cared to admit.

"Are you okay?" Heather asked. For once she was on the receiving end of a bear hug.

"I just was worried about you," Largeatha said smiling.

"I'm right here, sweetie."

The chief, Astrid, Ragnar and the rest of the mercenaries went below deck.

Ragnar moved forward to speak, "You are all free now. We have saved you and ask nothing in return. But for those of you who have no home and are looking to join a tribe I'm here to offer you a choice. Fight for chief Spitelout Haddock and become a member of the hairy hooligans."

Some of the wingmaidens entered with massive axes and began breaking the chains that held the slaves.

A slave girl stepped forward and spoke with suspicion, "How do we know we can trust you? You might just take advantage of us or sell us back. What makes you different?"

Ragnar turned to Astrid and the chief. "Leave."

"What," Astrid said angrily shocked.

"You can come back in once I'm done, but for now I need you to leave."

Before Astrid could protest Spitelout stopped her. "We will go. Come commander Hofferson."

Hearing her title she knew this was an order and went without argument.

Once they were gone and the only people left were the wingmaidens and the slaves, Hiccup approached the girl who had spoken and began taking off his chest armor. Heather removed her armor as well, and the two stood there in their tunics. Hiccup turned to Heather and nodded. He took off his shirt to reveal scars up and down his body, like a cocoon of stories that people would probably never hear the answers to. But the slaves noticed only the branding on the front of his chest. The mark was unmistakable— the Norse rune for a slave.

"The mark of a slave," said the chained girl.

Hiccup addressed the girl, who was still in awe and shock upon seeing the mark. Heather followed suit, and at this moment, taking off her shirt to show her branding to the rest of the slaves, her inhibitions were lost to the greater good. She felt no shyness as she revealed the mark to the crowd.

Hiccup took the hand of the girl who was looking at his branding and placed it on his chest.

"What is your name?" he asked gently.

"Pheone," the girl said.

"Pheone, if I thought for one second that you would be sold back I would never have made that offer." Hiccup stood back and put on his shirt and Heather did the same. "Like you all, I was once a slave. I understand what it's like, not having hope. So I made my own and killed the masters."

"Okay," Pheone said more confidently.

"Where are you all from?" Heather asked as she put her shirt back on.

"We are all that is left from a small tribe outside the archipelago. Our village was destroyed and we were taken as slaves," Pheone replied.

Hiccup backed away and looked on towards the crowd of slaves.

"Men and women, I speak to you not as a mercenary but as a former slave. What happened to your village is also happening to this one. If you help me and the people of Berk fight for their homes, I can assure you with Oden as my witness that you will have a place in Berk once we eliminate all of the Purple Moon warriors!"

A slave spoke out from behind "How can we win? We aren't an army. We're just farmers and boat builders."

"We have what very few armies in the world have."

"And what's that?" another slave said.

"We have dragons."


	11. Chapter 11

"Who does he think he is— telling me when and where I'm allowed to be!" Astrid said, pacing around the deck. "It's not like I'm the commander of Berk's army or anything. Oh no, if he thinks he can just forget about me well then he's got another thing coming—"

Before she could finish, the door to the deck below opened, and out of it came the mercenaries, followed by the slaves.

Ragnar, followed by a group of the slaves, approached the chief from under the deck. "They have accepted your offer and will fight with you as one of you as long as they have your assurance that you won't betray them."

"I promise on my honor as a man and as a Viking that I will not betray any of you. And from here on out let it be known that all free slaves freed from this dreadnaught of the Purple Moon are now officially a part of the hairy hooligan tribe!"

"Now let's get to work," Ragnar said, putting on his helmet.

Back at the camp, they got the new villagers settled in and introduced them to the other villagers. Though welcoming a small tribe into your own was controversial, it was mostly seen as necessary in the eyes of everyone, and for the most part, everyone greeted each other with open arms and welcomed them as new members.

The losses from the first battle resulted in Berk only being able to field 530 troops, but with the added support they received, they were now able to field close to 700 troops, not counting the wing maiden support which grew their army to 750.

Some of the new villagers were already warriors but most had to be trained. Now that the wingmaidens had arrived, they made quick work of the new warriors. With the wingmaidens helping the hooligans get into a coherent force, Berk's army looked more and more like something that could hold its own on the battlefield.

Within a week after the new members had joined the new decanus had been formed and the wingmaidens had been installed as officers in Berk's army to better help the mercenaries lead. As before, the structure was made up of first two-people teams, then ten-people teams with one officer made a decanus, five decanuses made a force, four forces made a piece, three pieces made a unit, three units made a legion. Hiccup's army style was based not only on the Romans that he both served and fought against, but also with the Parthians and Mongols and Carthaginians and Greeks as well as the Macedonians. He knew that each military still had its strengths and its weakness, and he decided that he was going to make the best out of each one and implement it in his military doctrine.

The Purple Moon was furious that their ships had been destroyed and their slaves had been stolen. The fact remained: they were stuck there and this was why they had started to build defensive fortifications around the village. The invader started building walls out of the dirt to surround the village and made spikes facing the forest. The repositioned catapulted and had round the clock guards posted on watchtowers that they hastily constructed to accompany the walls.

Astrid didn't like this waiting. The mercenary should have done something by now, right? Most of the time they were in the tent discussing things about the maps and the enemy, but whenever Astrid joined she quickly got impatient. She wanted to attack now. which did not help the situation with her and Ragnar. You see Astrid was a natural-born warrior and leader but her experience was limited to defending Berk as commander of Berks warriors. Despite being the best warrior on Berk, she had never led massive armies. She had never conducted a siege before. Most of the time it was fight or die for Astrid and her tribe. The enemy never gave them a warning about when they would attack. This was all new to her, and she hated it.

The mercenaries planned _everything. _They knew where everything was, how much of it there was, and if there was a back-up. They used maps and a device called a compass which Astrid had never seen before. They counted their provisions and other supplies down to the last detail. To the mercenaries, this was standard practice on a campaign, and in this situation, it was very similar.

It drove Astrid crazy to see the mercenaries counting the stocks and food of Berk when she thought they should be out there fighting for her village. By this point, Astrid had finally had enough of Ragnar's disrespect and sarcasm. She went looking for him around the camp but found nothing.

After the long meetings each day, Ragnar would go and sit down near the cliffs with his dragon. It was not too far away from camp and with his dragon by his side, he could make it back in no time at all. But this time it took longer for Ragnar to come back to camp.

NARRATERS POV

"S-oo-s-orr-ry sir, I d-didn't know that anyone was here," a small boy said while he tried awkwardly to stand at attention. Ragnar looked over at the kid and inspected him to see how to react.

The boy's armor had taken a beating, and he wore a knife that in his small hands looked more like a sword. Ragnar looked at him and then back out to the sea from atop the cliff. "This cliff is big enough for more than one person," he said, patting the ground next to him. "Take a seat."

"R-e-really," the boy stuttered.

"Sure why not, unless you want to be alone, in which case I can sit somewhere else, but... this few is amazing!"

"Ya, it is," the boy said as he made his way to where Ragnar had suggested he sit. He walked with a quite noticeable limp and when Ragnar saw this he assumed he was hurt.

"Are you injured kid?" he said pointing to the leg.

"Injuries heal. This one doesn't I'm afraid," he said sarcastically. His sarcasm went cold as he had forgotten he was talking to a superior. The boy tried this time to show respect. "I mean no s-sir."

Hiccup just smiled at this sudden slip-up and dismissed it. "What's your name?" Ragnar said to the kid.

"My name is Ivar sir, Ivar Alfson," the boy said, fearing that if he didn't say it fast and directly he would be reprimanded.

"Ivar...I knew an Ivar once. He was a great warrior and general, and one of the scariest people I have ever met."

"Cool...where is he"

"He's probably dining with the gods"

"Really, w-what happened to him, sir?" Ivar stuttered again.

"Oh, eventually he made enemies with the wrong people and lost, but not before conquering new kingdoms and crowning himself king. Half the world probably knows a version of him."

"He sounds a-ama-amazing. I probably don't deserve to share a name with such a great Viking." Ivar said sadly as though it was a statement of fact

Ragnar turned his body a little to look at Ivar "what makes you say that?"

"When I was born my left leg was deformed and it just remained that way, now I walk with a limp everywhere I go, plus I can barely lift a sword or hold a shield, I can't carry an ax or a hammer. All the kids in the village call me one leg Ivar or hobbling Ivar. The only reason I survived the first battle on berk was that I was in the back lines. When they were pairing us with partners know one wanted to be mine...and now that partners dead too." Ivar explained.

Ragnar listened to his story and could not help but notice the similarities in the two Ivars "You remind me of him a little bit."

"Really, how sir? You said he was a great Viking and king, how could I, a cripple, remind you of him?"

"Do you want to know his full title?"

"Sure...sir"

"They called him Ivar the Boneless. When he was born he had no function of his legs. It was only when he was older was when he learned how to walk and even then he needed assistance. Like you, he was picked on, scrawny and weak, and could barely pick up a sword."

Ivar looked stunned. He could not believe that a man without the use of his legs could rise to be king, let alone a warrior. "W-wha-at? How he c-couldn't ev-even stand? How could he become great?" Ivar was dumbfounded.

Ragnar pulled out a small knife and held it gently. "The enemy can not pick up a sword if you take out his hand" He threw the knife at a nearby tree and it hit dead center where a large branch had fallen off, but the stump had remained.

Ivar turned from looking at the knife still in the tree amazed at such accuracy but confused. "What do you mean?"

"Can you lift a knife?"

"Yes sir."

"Then you have an advantage over your enemy. A knife can be thrown, concealed, it's smaller and lightweight and you can hold quite a lot more of them then swords or axes."

"But you can't defend with a knife," Ivar said skeptically.

"Says who?"

"Me."

"You can throw it, can't you?"

"What if they have a shield?"

"Throw it at their feet or don't put yourself in a situation where they can use their shields."

"What if that's not possible?" Ivar asked as he listened to this logic.

"Then retreat. Live to fight another day."

"Wh-what, isn't that shameful in the eyes of the gods?" Ivar was trying to get Ragnar to change his way of thinking.

"Hahahahahahaha ya, shameful, sure." Ragnar laughed. "Listen, kid, when you have seen as much war as I have, you learn that all that warrior's stuff is a bunch of yak dung."

"Oh...well the commander sometimes has to be dragged away from a battlefield. She will never retreat. She says it's not what a warrior does and that it would shame your family and you won't go to Valhalla, but she takes prisoners when she can."

"So she will accept others surrender, but she won't surrender herself?" Ragnar said. The hypocrisy seemed obvious to him.

"Pretty much, though not many battles end in the enemy surrendering to us."

"There is a thing called a tactical retreat, kid. In this case, you retreat because it's smart and then attack later when you have more warriors or tactical advantage. This is something that I have failed to teach the commander. The battle is not fought in the fields. It's fought in the mind."

"The commander is great! She has saved us many times on the field of battle." Ivar said, coming to her defense.

"Ivar, if we were to charge right now and try to retake the village we will lose, but if we think, plan, strategize and outplay our enemy then our victory will come at the cost of much fewer people." Ragnar understood that Astrid's soldiers were fiercely loyal and would follow her to the end, but it was important that Ragnar also show these people that the old ways were not always the best ways.

"Oh, I understand, sorry sir," Ivar said, backing down. He knew he should challenge a man like Ragnar, but when it came to the commander and her honor as a warrior and leader he could not stand by.

"Ivar who is your partner now?"

"I don't have one. I was looking, like the offices said to, but no one said yes and so I was dismissed. Can't really blame them. Who would want a partner who has not even killed a dragon let alone a human?"

"No one? hmm."

An awkward silence followed. Ivar finally got the courage to speak. "I have to say, when I heard that dragon riders were coming, I got pretty excited."

"Really, how come?" Hiccup said surprised a kid from a dragon hating village would get excited about his presence

"You ride dragons! sir. how cool is that! I mean I could never do it. They'd probably see me as a toothpick,"

"Everyone needs one" Hiccup said. His giggling made Ivars ease up. "Are you interested in dragons?"

"I've read most of the books about dragons that are on Berk."

"Oh, you have, have you?" Hiccup said. _Oh great_, he thought. _He probably thinks dragons are a vicious beast and that being a dragon master means I must subdue them and force them to bend to my will_.

"They keep them in the great hall when they're not using them, so I read them when I get bored. I have to say that the books are really wrong in my opinion. I mean all they do, sir, is tell you to kill the dragons but the books never tell you why we kill the dragons"

Hiccup was listening to this boy talk and it got him thinking the kid was smarter than he looked. "Interesting observation."

"Thanks … I guess….a while ago dragons would attack and steal food and livestock from us. But then it stopped and I can explain why. As the dragon master, it's worth asking...Do you know why the dragons stopped attacking?"

Hiccup paused hearing what had been asked and pondered what to say and realized that there was no way to answer this without sounding sad. There was no way the words coming out of his mouth would sound any less sad and fill with pain than when the story itself was being written "I do" he said looking down

"Really! You must tell me...I-I-mean sir if you don't mind" he said, unaware that Ragnar's voice and tone changed.

"It's not a happy story and one that I don't tell strangers."

"Can you at least tell me that it won't happen ever again?" Ivar said nervously.

"With luck."

Ragnar looked off into the distance, and Ivar could see that he needed a minute to collect himself. Finally, he said "Can I ask you, something kid"

"Of course, sir," Ivar said. The question made him nervous.

" Well, I don't really know why I'm telling you this or why I'm asking you this but oh what the hell...I'm going to die. I've wanted to for a long time and being a mercenary has helped bring me closer each day, but when I was attacked by your village blacksmith that day I was finally at peace, that day was the closest I have ever gotten to achieving death. But then I remembered something that someone, someone very close to me, said. That, someone, noticed that I mostly just keep going and this is because if I die, then a lot of people who depend on the dragon master's ability to understand the dragons in a new way may be lost. So I have found a solution. I will discuss with the rest of the syndicate, and they will agree I should take on an apprentice. I will take him or her on and train them in everything I know. They will be responsible for caring for and training the next generation of dragon riders, and he or she will be the next dragon master."

"Really, an apprentice sir that's...wow," Ivar said, not knowing what to make of what he just heard.

"I will be looking for an apprentice from the best and the brightest from all around the archipelago. And if the chief allows it, which I think he will, maybe I will choose from Berk and, of course, hold a competition for the position."

"I don't think the commander will approve," Ivar said, nervous and unconvinced.

Ragnar was not afraid to admit that every time Astrid got mad at his sarcasm he had to hold back a bit of laughter. "It's not her call and to be honest, she hates my guts already so I'm not afraid to anger her."

"I would be. She's very scary."

Hiccup chuckled at this and then turned back to the sky. "Ivar do you have a job or an apprenticeship?"

"I work in the great hall and I go down to the docks to see if there is any extra work to make some extra coins. It used to be me and my mom but she became sick and now it's just me."

"I see….well Ivar you should come and try out for the apprenticeship, I think you would be good at it."

"Me?" he said unconvinced. "With dragons? They would eat me alive."

"Probably, but you don't know until you try, do you?" he said shrugging his arms

"You think I would be a good apprentice? But I'm just a cripple."

"So am I," he said, gesturing to his leg.

Many of the inhabitants of Berk had either forgotten that he had a prosthetic or would never have known because it was always covered by his armor. Most people feared him or avoided him altogether. But when they did meet him most were enthralled by his charisma and his biting sarcasm, or his night fury.

"Oh," Ivar said looking at his injured foot. "What happened?"

"Since you asked, I will tell you. The story involves the Red Death."

"Okay, now I've got to hear it."

"Sorry kid, not today, but I'll tell you what. If you pass the tryouts and become my apprentice I'll tell you the complete story and you'll know why the dragon raids started and stopped."

"Well then sir, take back Berk and I'll see you at tryouts"

"We finally have the last thing we need to take back the village."

"What is that?"

"Are you familiar with changewings?"

"Yes sir."

"Changewings shed their skin, but that skin does not lose its ability. I have a team ready to go. They specialize in infiltration and destruction, but they need changewings for this mission."

"Cool."

On the night of the attack, Berk's forces had assembled far enough outside the perimeter of Berk so they would not be seen. With the new Berkians and the Wingmaidans helping, the army looked more like a coherent fighting force. However, if they wanted to take back their village then they would need the help of the dragons that Hiccup enlisted.

The plan is to have the dragons come in and disrupt the enemy, then they will pull back and Berk's main force will move in and destroy the remaining force.

But the dragons can't…..

Not until Berk clears the anti-dragon artillery.

Thankfully Hiccup had assembled a team, code name "the village idiots" led by Camicazi and another four members of the team, Fiona, Sigrid, Merry, and Hella. He gave them the important job of taking out the artillery as well as any enemy archers and disrupting as much as they could.

Each girl had changewing clocks, as well as the usable wingmaiden setup. Since the mission required stealth, they went in light with only swords, bows, and the dragons stuck to their backs.

Camicazi pov

We had our clocks on and our weapons ready. We knew our mission and our duty well. We had the supplies and we knew what to do.

Reach the artillery.

Take out the guards.

Place the zipple back gas.

Let Hiccup do the rest.

We had been denying the enemy the use of wood whenever we could, ambushing their foraging parties. Denying them the use of Berk's wood and natural resources has forced them to dig in. Our plan was working. They built their walls out of the ground. They constructed retaining walls, dirt stacked up high, ground dug out below, giving the impression that the wall is higher than it actually is.

Thanks to our attack on their ships they knew we had dragons. Unfortunately, they also knew how to deal with them, trenches with baristas, when I had fought with Hiccup on a campaign we had dragons with us, the enemy countered with trenches and ballistas, negating the effectiveness of their attacks.

The trenches were not the problem because the majority of the purple moon was not in them. The real problems were the guards and the lookouts and the artillery.

My team was specializing in infiltration and destruction, and now was the time to prove that "the village idiots' were one of the deadliest teams in the archipelago. We entered the first trench, passing undetected easily. My team was equipped with mini crossbows so we could subdue our enemies silently without having to get close to them.

The first enemies we encountered were killed without hesitation, dead the moment our crossbows came into their sights.

We still had our changewing cloaks on at this point and it made sneaking up on the enemy a lot easier. We moved along the trenches and whenever we found a ballista we cut the ropes that made the fire. Every enemy that had the misfortune of coming into view of us was killed with deadly precision, one bolt to the head was more than enough to put them down.

We finally made it to the entrance and entered the village. There were some people walking around, some were drunk and others were following orders. We stuck to the sides of the town, trying to avoid the few people still up at this time of night. Those who ran into us or those who we deemed high priority were taken out, and we hid their bodies as though they never existed.

There were a couple of watchtowers with ballistae and archers and I knew those needed to go. I ordered Hella to take out the ones on the right and Sigrid to take out the ones on the left and the rest of us would go and take out the artillery in the center of the village.

Both the girls nodded and under our changewing cloaks, we went undetected.

When we arrived at the catapults and ballistae, we found the guards sleeping. We quietly unsheathed our knives and approached them. One of the guards was sleeping against the catapults he was supposed to be guarding when I approached him with my knife. I slit his throat quickly, which stopped him from making any noise.

We did the rest to all of the other guards until there were none left. I ordered Fiona and Merry to unpack the zipple back gas that we brought with us. All we needed to do was place it under a few and then when the fighting starts— boom! Once we were done we then moved to meet back up with Sigrid and hella. They had finished their task, disabling artillery, and killing the guards.

One last objective. The purple moon, as much as I hate to admit it, was efficient at what they did. Like the dragon guild syndicate, they were professionals but unlike us, their lack of honor was prevalent everywhere they went. However, they were predictable. They were mostly former soldiers that couldn't go back to being regular civilians. Their heavy infantry slept separately from the archers and they slept separately from the regular infantry. This made it easier for me to find them.

Most purple moon camps kept the archers in the center of the camps since they were considered high-value targets, and were vulnerable to melee attacks. I knew where to find them.

Stealthily we made our way to the center of the village. The purple moon had been occupying the houses of Berk and it was safe to assume that the arches had their pick of the houses in the center.

I motioned for the team to form up and we quickly entered the house closest to us.

There were roughly 10-20 people inside each house in the center of the village. I called it perfectly! They were all filled with archers. We went house to house and like the wind of death made no noise. We quietly unsheathed our daggers and started slitting more throats. Now we could retreat. We exited the center of the village, making our we to the line of trenches. After that, we made our way back to our army. And there we found Hiccup.

I took off my cloak and the rest of the girls followed suit. We approached Hiccup, prepared to inform him that the plan was a go.

"Gas is set. All you need to do is not miss," I said playfully.

Hiccup just looked at me and then back at Berk where we were about to attack.

"I don't miss," he said with absolute confidence.

With this, he got on his night fury and flew off. I now needed to prepare everyone else. The attack was about to take place, they needed to be ready.

I found Astrid, the chief, my friend Heather, Eret and Largeatha. "We are ready!" I said simply.

Astrid grabbed her ax and Heather and Largeatha got her weapons and we headed out. We made our way to where we would lead the army.

"Astrid I took out their archers and the dragons will kill a lot of their warriors leveling the playing field, but we're about to fight a battle that may get very messy, okay?"

Astrid looked at me with a determined expression. "I abandoned Berk once. I will die fighting this time before I retreat."

I turned to the armies that we were going to lead and waited for the signal. Of course, it was very familiar and would scare most people but to me, it's just a whistle.

Suddenly it came.

With a crash I heard it, the screech of a night fury followed by dozens of dragons descending. I could hear the sounds of their fire hitting their marks.

I turned to the army and raised my sword "Out there is your home, take it. It's yours!"

_**thanks for reading. if you want to leave a comment and follow the story that is much welcomed**_


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